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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Monday, April 3, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Department of Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol continues to get flak from sugar industry stakeholders for statements that appear to favor importers of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
The “solution” Piñol speaks about is “unacceptable and continues to reek of preference for beverage companies rather than sugar farmers,” the Sugar Alliance of the Philippines (SAP) said in a statement.
The organization was reacting to Piñol’s announcement that big beverage companies expressed willingness to buy more locally produced sugar at lower prices.
“Secretary Piñol seems to be seeing only one side of the equation,” read part of the SAP statement dated March 31. “And unfortunately, that side favors the multinationals rather than the sector he needs to be protecting.”
Sugar planters and farmworkers are against HFCS. They said the importation and use of the alternative sweetener hurts the local sugar industry. They demand stricter regulation of HFCS importation and use.
Last month Piñol called sugar stakeholders protesting the HFCS “spoiled brats” and “well-funded demonstrators” for calling for a boycott of beverage companies — specifically Coca-Cola FEMSA Philippines, Inc. — using HFCS.
The General Alliance of Workers Association said Piñol was “barking up the wrong tree.”
“It appeared that he became the mouthpiece of multinational capitalist beverage and soft drink companies using…HFCS as…substitute for our local sugar,” said Secretary-General Wennie Sancho.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola plan to buy their sugar requirements for next year in advance to ease the pressure on sugar planters complaining about the drop in sugar prices due to the entry of HFCS from China, Piñol said.
HFCS accounts for 90 percent of Coca-Cola’s production, he said. “They (Coca-Cola) offered to increase their consumption of local sugar from 90:10 to 80:20.”
“Both soft drink manufacturers, which have relied on HFCS since 2010 when prices of local sugar doubled, would need at least six months to restructure their production processes,” he said. “They just need enough time to adjust their processing, manufacturing process…they need to install new clarification machines to convert raw sugar into syrup that can be used in their soft drinks.”
The SAP said Piñol made the announcement without consulting sugar stakeholders.
“We take offense at the offer…to increase their consumption ratio from 90:10 to 80:20 when [before] they have been producing their beverage at 80:20, 80 being sugar,” the group said.
Sugar prices dropped to P1,300 from P1,800 per Lkg (50-kilogram bag) since the start of the crop year, said the SAP. “Can’t the secretary see what six more months will do to the very farmers he is mandated to protect?”
Piñol also “echoed” the beverage companies’ request to allow them to buy “D” sugar, which is intended for the world market, the group said.
“D” sugar, which accounts for 20 percent of the Philippines’ produce, costs only P900 per Lkg, while “B” sugar (74 percent) costs P1,400 per Lkg, said the SAP.
“We are baffled that the secretary continues to speak for the beverage companies yet has no time to dialog with us so he can see the real picture from the ground and perhaps finally understand where we are coming from,” it said.
Sugar produced in the Philippines is more expensive than the one imported from other countries, the SAP admitted.
“But the government must also take into account that, unlike in other countries, our farmers have never been given any government subsidy. We are even taxed high,” it said. “Perhaps if Secretary Piñol can also address this, then maybe…we can survive on a much lower priced sugar.”/PN
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