NextGen Day

MANILA, Philippines — Agriculture Secretary William Dar said on Friday that the decision to import specific agricultural goods, including sugar, is based on statistics from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

“Our importation strategy is based on data collected in collaboration with the PSA. In a Laging Handa briefing, Dar stated, “[We hope] that the UNIFED’s (United Sugar Producers Federation) case should likewise be data-based.”

After the UNIFED, the country’s largest umbrella association of sugar producers, protested the importation of 200,000 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar during milling season, the government intervened.

Dar stated that the Philippines has a good supply of food, with the exception of sugar, which is expected to be in short supply in the first and second quarters of 2022.

He also said that the pre-final crop forecast for raw sugar production has been reduced to 2.072 MT, down from 2.099 MT when Typhoon Odette swept across the Visayas and Mindanao in December last year, causing an estimated PHP1.2 billion in damage to the country’s sugar industry.

“Our refined sugar consumption is expected to be 82,554 MT (metric tons) per month in 2020 and 2021, whereas our refined sugar balance is only 54,355 MT at the moment. As a result, we must urgently fill the void. Corruption allegations in the importation procedure are false. “All we’re doing is filling in the gaps in the food supply to protect the country’s food security, especially at this time of epidemic,” Dar explained.

In anticipation of a shortfall, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) declared on February 8 that it will authorize the importation of 200,000 metric tons (MT) of standard and bottlers grade (premium refined) sugar.

After an assessment of the damage and losses caused by Typhoon Odette to sugarcane fields, Sugar Order No. 3 was signed.

The board took into account the lower level of raw sugar production, as well as damaged sugar mills and refineries.

According to an earlier report by SRA administrator Hermenigildo Serafica, the importation will fill the gap in supply and “will provide the country with enough buffer stock to tide over until the start of the next milling season.”

After UNIFED’s member association, the Rural Sugar Planters Association Inc., filed a lawsuit for an injunction against the SRA’s decision on February 11, the Sagay City, Negros Occidental Regional Trial Court Branch 73 issued a 20-day temporary restraining order against the importation order.

Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri and Imee Marcos have lent their support to UNIFED.

Zubiri filed Senate Resolution 995 to investigate SRA’s issuance of the order allowing sugar imports “even during the height of the harvest and milling season,” as well as the DA’s importation programs on other agricultural products, with the goal of crafting policy that will ensure support for farmers and food security rather than reliance on imports.

Marcos, on the other hand, questioned the DA’s importation program, pointing out that Dar “has done nothing but import rice, chicken, pork, fish, and now sugar,” according to Marcos.

On February 24, the court will hear the application for a writ of a preliminary injunction.

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