The order of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to expedite the importation of over 64,000 metric tons of sugar is untimely since local millers are in full swing, which means there is enough supply, a group of sugar producers said Thursday.
Importation should be done by March or April when the estimates of production yield are known, Butch Lozande, Secretary General of the Philippine National Federation of Sugar Workers, said.
“Our position is no importation this year, if there’s a need, let’s determine next year by March or April, when we know the approximate yield of the year 2022-2023,” he said in Filipino.
The President earlier directed the Department of Agriculture (DA), which he concurrently leads, to act immediately to stabilize the country’s sugar prices after a 38-percent increase in prices of the commodity last month.
Mr. Marcos was quoted in Memorandum Order No. 77 as saying that the price increase in sugar, confectionery, and desserts was “very high.”
The President, who is also the country’s agriculture secretary, wants to hasten the entry of imported refined sugar to stabilize its selling prices, a move widely opposed by sugar producers as the Philippines still has sufficient local supply.
There have been two batches of imports earlier this year, on top of the almost 3.8 million metric tons of local produce, the sugar workers group added. This should be enough to cater to over two million metric tons of estimated consumption for the year, it added.
The DA argued that the imports would lower the prices of refined sugar, but Lozande said there could be price manipulation at play.
“We suspect there’s manipulation in supply and pricing since the price had already gone down then it went up again in November, entering December,” he said.
“Which, for us, is when it should be going down since we are in full swing in terms of milling. In terms of supply, there’s nothing to worry about because all millers nationwide are operational,” he added.
Inflation, which hit 8 percent in November, can be mitigated by temporarily removing the value-added tax on basic goods such as sugar and putting a price cap instead of ramping up imports, he said.
“This is the direct, simple solution that the government can do to protect consumers,” Lozande said.
The DA previously issued an order directing the agency’s Minimum Access Volume (MAV) Secretariat officer in charge and Executive Director Jocelyn Salvador to “immediately convene” the MAV Advisory Council.
Likewise, Mr. Marcos instructed the council to “expedite the importation of 64,050 metric tons of refined sugar through the MAV mechanism.”
MAV refers to the volume of a specific agricultural product that can be imported with a lower tariff. This is the minimum volume committed by the Philippines to the World Trade Organization.
The agency issued this directive as the President expressed concern over the “high inflation rate” of sugar.
Citing government data, the DA noted that the annual inflation increment for sugars, confectionery and desserts reached 38 percent in November.
The United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines (Unifed) is not opposing any plans to import sugar, but the group appealed to the President to halt any attempts at importation while sugar milling “is at its peak.”
“We are at the peak of the harvest, and we have abundant stocks of raw and refined sugar, as such we see no need to import sugar at this time,” said Unifed president Manuel Lamata in a statement.
“We are appealing to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to halt this importation of refined sugar through the minimum access volume mechanism until the results of a post-assessment of sugar stocks after the end of the milling season can be conducted,” added Lamata.