By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The sugar milling season this year in Negros Occidental is better than in 2019, according to Atty. Emilio Yulo, representative of the sugar planters to the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) board.

Yulo qualified his statement by saying that this year is better “in terms of gross tons, canes milled.”

“We are about 50 percent higher than last year,” he said though admitting that purity this milling season is lesser than last year.

“We hope the situation continues particularly that when the dry season comes the purity will increase. The tonnage is favorable and the prices have held at P1,000 plus per 1 kg or per 50 kilo bag right now. That is profitable to our sugar producers as well as fair to our consumers,” Yulo pointed out.

He added that the Christmas season is heavy on the demand-side.

“Even if we are in a coronavirus pandemic, agriculture has delivered,” he said.

Yulo attributed the speed of the milling season to the “unhampered operations of our sugar centrals.”

“It is fortunate that there are no cases of COVID-19 in our sugar mills. The cases of sacadas who are positive with the virus are isolated and no communities surrounding the sugar mills were locked down,” he added.

Yulo also thanked the provincial government of Antique for allowing their workers to cross to Negros island.

He also thanked the provincial government of Negros Occidental for setting up stringent measures for the migratory sugarcane workers.

Only a small percentage of them were tested positive and all of them were asymptomatic, he also said./DGB, WDJ