The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) is urged to fast track the inspection of sugar mill equipment, after “very doubtful” produce was released by the processing plants.

Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines (Unifed), said they demand the SRA to conduct proper calibration of sugar milling equipment.

“We have had truckloads of canes which reportedly have zero LKGTC [50 kilo bags per ton of cane] as extracted by the mills, which makes us suspect that something strange is going on,” Lamata said in a statement.

He “questions the integrity of sugar mills,” as the long drought earlier this year had effects on the produce.

“The results so far have been suspect, so as not to shortchange our sugar farmers,” he said.

The Unifed president added that sugar groups were allowed to have their own chemists in the mills to check the veracity of the extractions.

However, the practice has been discontinued since.

Lamata hopes that sugar mills will not take advantage of the farmers, asking the SRA and Department of Agriculture to ensure that the planters are protected from this situation.

Earlier, SRA Administrator Pablo Azcona ordered the creation of inspection teams to conduct “random inspections focusing on analyzing samples’ sucrose content, Brix and apparent purity.”

The SRA received complaints from farmers of very low to zero LKGTC results since they started milling last month.

Average figures in the past are 1.7 LKGTC at 50 tons per hectare, but since the start of the milling season, it has gone down to 1.44 LKGTC./WDJ