The National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) clarified that they are opposing any plans to import sugar despite flagging the dangers of short supply. This situation is partly blamed on an ongoing outbreak of red-striped soft scale insects (RSSI) in Negros.
‘We have consistently opposed unbridled sugar importation, knowing that excessive importation has caused the decrease in sugar prices for the past crop years,’ NFSP President Enrique Rojas said in a statement sent to the Inquirer.
‘Our Federation has always called for controlled importation, particularly on the specific volume and schedule of the arrival of imported sugar, so that sugar prices will not be adversely affected,’ added Rojas.
The NFSP said their words were allegedly ‘maliciously misrepresented,’ referring to an Oct. 3 report titled ‘Pests threaten sugar supply, prompts importation, say growers.’
In their message to the Inquirer on Oct. 1, Rojas said: ‘(The) government and the private sector have worked hand in hand to combat the infestation and at least, control the spread of RSSI and minimize the damage to our sugarcane crops. As we have observed in the past years, our production has not been enough to fill the demand.’
Necessary, but.
‘This makes it necessary to import but any importation should be judiciously managed in terms of the volume and timing of arrival, so that our farmers will not be placed at a disadvantage against these cheaper, subsidized imported sugar,’ Rojas added.
‘Hopefully, after all the RSSI-affected canes are harvested in the early months of the season, our prospective crops can recover and we can produce enough sugar to fill our domestic demand, so that there will be no need for sugar importation in the coming crop years,’ Rojas said.
On Wednesday, he said: ‘In fact last week, we already communicated to the SRA our concern regarding the excessive importation under Sugar Order No. 8, Series of 2024-2025. We agreed to an initial importation of 150,000 metric tons, but more than that volume has already entered the country, as of September 14.’
‘With a huge projected stock balance and the excessive importation under Sugar Order No. 8, sugar prices will suffer in the early months of the milling season. Under this scenario, additional importation will be suicidal to the sugar industry. Thus, the NFSP categorically states that it is against any importation at this stage of the crop year,’ he stressed. INQ