By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
A group has expressed its opposition to a proposed importation of 450,000 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar as part of the government’s plan to arrest the spike in sugar prices in the country.
Wennie Sancho, lead convenor and labor advocate of the Save the Sugar Industry Movement (SAVE-SIM), said the unregulated entry of subsidized imported sugar would be disastrous to the local sugar industry as it could bring grave injustice and irreparable damage and losses.
Sancho said 90 percent of the sugar farmers are agrarian reform beneficiaries who have soldiered on planting sugar even without receiving support from the government.
The SAVE-SIM leader warned that thrusting to slug it out with imported sugar in the domestic market without protection, under a regime of sugar liberalization, will only add cruelty to government neglect.
“If imported sugar will flood the market, sugar farm workers will have their ‘tiempo muerto,’ not only for three months, but for a lifetime,” Sancho said.
Government agencies should be more aggressive in pursuing unscrupulous sugar traders, hoarders, and profiteers rather than proposing a new plan to import sugar, he added.
Meanwhile, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson echoed the calls from the other sugar groups that the importation of sugar should only be done during the off-milling season.
Lacson said that careful and accurate planning must be made as to how much sugar should be imported, as well as the timing of the entry of the sugar imports into the country, to avoid any illegal smuggling.
Last week, the United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) gave the nod to the Department of Agriculture and the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to allow the proposed importation of refined sugar.
The 450,000 MT, according to UNIFED, “is an acceptable volume for buffer stocks amidst speculation that there may be a shortage by the end of the milling season,” and will leave the discretion of formulating the guidelines and mechanics for importation to President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and the SRA./DGB, WDJ