ILOILO — Western Visayas, particularly Iloilo Province, and nearby Negros Island, is home to thousands of sugarcane farmers, agrarian reform beneficiaries, and mill workers whose incomes are directly affected by fluctuating mill-gate prices.
Thus mayors across Iloilo Province have united to call for a temporary suspension of sugar importation during the peak milling season, warning that the influx of imported sugar continues to depress local mill-gate prices and endanger the livelihoods of small farmers and mill workers.
In a resolution, the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) – Iloilo chapter appealed to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), and the Department of Agriculture (DA) to adopt fair market measures that would protect the country’s sugar producers and promote a more sustainable local industry.
“The influx of imported sugar — especially when it coincides with the milling season — has led to depressed prices that threaten the survival of small farmers and rural workers,” the LMP said.
It added: “Regulating their timing is crucial to balance consumer protection with the constitutional duty to protect Filipino farmers.”
The mayors’ call echoes the open letter of the Jalasig Sugarcane Planters’ Association Inc., which earlier urged President Marcos to intervene amid what it described as the “flooding of the domestic market” with imported sugar.
The association, composed of over 5,600 small-scale planters, said that repeated importations, purportedly to offset production deficits, have created chronic oversupply and forced farmers to sell below cost.
“Despite assurances that no importation will take place during the milling season, the adverse effects of previous over-importation are already being felt,” the group wrote. “Local planters are being forced to sell their produce below cost, while molasses producers suffer from collapsing domestic prices due to unchecked imports.”
Both the mayors and planters appealed for a more transparent and farmer-centered import policy, arguing that stabilizing local production should take precedence over short-term market interventions./PN
