By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Small planters in Negros Occidental, or those working between one to 10 hectares of land, have felt the brunt of the drop in sugar prices, according to Save the Sugar Industry Movement (SAVE-SIM) lead convenor Wennie Sancho.
In an interview by Bombo Radyo-Bacolod during the weekend, Sancho dismissed claims that hacienderos, typically planters who operate plantations upwards of 50 hectares, according to analysts, are the ones suffering from the price drop. Instead, he stressed, based on data coming from the labor sector, around 80-90 percent of the lands in the province are owned and operated by small scale sugar farmers, most of whom beneficiaries of the government’s agrarian reform program and those who have formed cooperatives.
Sancho pointed out the big sugar planters don’t have a problem, as they could simply convert their lands to subdivisions.
He also placed the blame on multinational beverage companies, such as Coca-Cola FEMSA Philippines, which use high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) instead of locally-produced sugar.
Despite this, Sancho earlier stated his group would stop calling for the boycott of Coca-Cola products, following agreements made among industry stakeholders in last week’s congressional hearings.
Earlier, the beverage giant withdrew its lawsuit against the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) seeking to nullify Sugar Order No. 3 (SO3).
SO3 was introduced by the SRA in March of this year, with the purpose of regulating the entry of HFCS into the country./WDJ