SRA must ensure stable mill gate sugar prices: solon

BACOLOD CITY – Negros Occidental Fifth District Rep. Emilio Bernardino Yulo said on Monday the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) should ensure stable mill gate sugar prices amid the need for importation to address the expected shortfall in production in the current crop year.

"It's okay to import since we will have shortage in supply as long as the weekly millgate prices will not be affected until the end of the milling season," Yulo, a former SRA board member, representing the planters, told reporters here.

"It is important for the SRA to manage our millgate prices. What's important now is we continue to maintain that profitability level for our farmers," he added.

At this point, he said, small farmers are just starting to mill their sugarcane.

He noted that the mill gate prices in the past weeks have gone down from PHP3,300 to PHP2,800 per 50-kilogram (Lkg) bag, but have already returned to the PHP3,000-level.

Yulo said it is "too early" to say that reports of sugar smuggling are the actual reason for the dip in mill gate prices, nothing that the 260 containers of imported sugar that supposedly arrived before the allowed date of entry are still at the port.

"But of course, you know that sugar is a political commodity so it is affected by this kind of scenario and environment. I would presume the previous drop was at least, because of such concern," he added.

Yulo pointed out "everybody is in agreement that eventually, we will come out short (of sugar supply)".

"There's no debate on that. At the end of the milling season, production estimates of the SRA is only 1.9 million metric tons. Domestic consumption is approximately 2.3 to 2.4 million metric tons. In short, we have a shortage," he added.

In the current milling season, the crop year is set from Sept. 1, 2022 to Aug. 31, 2023, according to the SRA. (PNA)