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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Wednesday, April 19, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Senate will create a body that will work with producers and large-scale consumers on matters affecting the sugar industry.
The Senate committees on agriculture and trade on Tuesday agreed to form the “sugar industry consultative committee.”
The consultative body will speak with stakeholders and users to come up with a plan on how best to help the sugar industry and address concerns of sugar users, like ample supply and pricing.
Among the matters discussed during the Senate committee hearing on Tuesday was pricing.
“The industry wants a P1,500 price for domestic sugar, and the beverage companies will help,” said Sen. Cynthia Villar, agriculture committee chairwoman.
Villar was referring to the sugar producers’ “suggested fair composite price” per 50-kilogram bag, or Lkg. It will have to be discussed with industry users.
Beverage companies also agreed to recognize Sugar Order No. 3, a Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) policy setting regulatory measures on the importation of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), said Villar.
The consultative committee will be led by the Senate’s agriculture and trade and industry committees, along with the Department of Agriculture, SRA, Department of Trade and Industry, Bureau of Customs, Sugar Alliance of the Philippines (SAP), beverage companies and other industry users, millers, sugar farmers, and labor groups.
Meanwhile Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri believes there is a “new dawn” for the sugar industry.
Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol will push for mechanization to increase productivity in local sugarcane farms.
Piñol said he bears no ill feelings toward sugar industry stakeholders despite an earlier exchange of criticisms. “I’m too old for that,” he said.
But there is still “no win-win solution,” said Atty. Emilio Yulo, spokesperson for the SAP, an opponent of the importation and use of HFCS. This is just the start, he said.
Sugarcane farm laborers, planters, millers, and agrarian reform beneficiaries attended the hearing.
Senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Paolo Benigno Aquino IV (chairman, trade committee) and Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (3rd District, Negros Occidental) were also present./PN
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