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[av_heading heading=’ DROP IN SUGAR PRICE CONTINUES ‘Industry dependents must be prepared’ ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY RANIE AZUE
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BACOLOD City – Newly appointed Sugar Regulatory Administration Board member Atty. Emilio Yulo III warned sugar dependents as the price of domestic sugar continues to drop.
Sugar – considered as the “lifeblood” of the local economy in Negros Occidental – was valued at P1,370 per 50-kilogram bag at the beginning of its milling season this year.
Butch Lozande, secretary-general of the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers, earlier said the sugar’s starting price was “very unstable” and thus warned of a looming crisis.
Lozande also said the price of sugar will continue to drop even at its peak harvest from November this year to March next year.
Currently, sugar is valued at P1,170 per 50-kilogram bag.
According to Yulo, the price may further slide down to P1,000 per 50-kilogram bag.
The current sugar price affects small planters – those owning plantations covering seven hectares or below – representing 81 percent of the entire sugar industry, added Yulo.
Yulo stressed that if the price continues to go down, many small planters, especially agrarian reform beneficiaries, will be forced to lease or sell their farms.
Yulo said, as much as possible, he doesn’t want to “create a doomsday scenario” for the industry but reminded that its dependents must be prepared.
He added that the sugar industry’s stakeholders must seek solution against the importation of high fructose corn syrup, which is primarily blamed for the drop in the price of domestic sugar.
The price of sugar’s byproduct molasses also dropped to P4,000 per ton from its usual price ranging from P8,000 to P10,000 per ton, according to Yulo./PN
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