By CESAR JOLITO III
Sugar producers in Negros Occidental’s Fifth District are urgently appealing for the intervention of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. as farmgate sugar prices continue to plummet, leaving thousands of farmers and laborers on the brink of financial distress.
In an open letter addressed to Marcos, the Sugar Association and Cooperative of Negros Occidental’s Fifth District warned that the industry is facing “recent woes” that threaten its stability and the livelihoods of those dependent on sugarcane farming.
The group reported that farmgate prices have dropped by P500 per 50-kilogram bag, a plunge that began as the 2025-2026 milling season opened in October. Traditionally, prices are higher during this period due to low sugar inventories.
However, raw sugar prices have averaged only P2,250 per bag, significantly lower than the P2,700 recorded at the close of the previous crop year in June. Prices further dwindled to P2,197 in the most recent monitoring week.
“In the nine weeks since opening, prices remained hovering around P2,300, which already fell below our production cost. To date, this plunged further … Still, even at these low prices, there has been a shortage of traders buying our sugar,” the group lamented.
Despite crashing farmgate prices, retail sugar prices have remained high at around P75 per kilogram, a disparity that farmers say provides them no relief.
“It is concerning that this increase in retail price has not trickled down to an improvement in our farmgate prices,” they added.
The association also underscored that the Fifth District remains one of the hardest-hit areas in the aftermath of Typhoon “Tino,” which submerged thousands of hectares of sugarcane fields and left plantations mired in mud. Compounding the crisis is the ongoing red-stripe soft scale insect infestation, which has further lowered yields.
According to the group’s estimate, 2,500 farmers and 30,000 laborers in the district have been affected by the twin challenges of natural calamity and pest infestation.
“The urgency for government action cannot be overstated. While a long-term solution must be studied, what we need most is a short-term measure to halt the bleeding,” the farmers stressed.
They are calling on the Department of Agriculture and the Sugar Regulatory Administration to step in and review current sugar buying and pricing policies, warning that failure to act swiftly could lead to deeper industry-wide repercussions.
The appeal comes at a critical time for Negros Occidental, the country’s top sugar-producing province, as stakeholders brace for more economic strain should prices continue to fall unchecked./CJ, WDJ