Sugar producers, SRA: No to price freeze on sugar

BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines -- A Department of Trade and Industry official insisted on making refined sugar available at P43 a kilo in the retail market despite the objection of sugar producers and the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to fix the price of commodity.

Sugar Regulatory Administrator Rafael Coscolluela said sugar producers were unhappy with the insistence of DTI undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya to keep the price at P43 a kilo even if the prices of sugar in the retail market have been selling at P44 to P45 a kilo.

The price freeze on sugar would last for at least two weeks under the "Pamaskong Handog Asukal (Sugar Christmas Offering)" program of DTI, he said.

"We expressed our objection to the DTI's insistence on pinning down prices because the current retail prices of sugar are not unreasonable; they are just following world market trends," Coscolluela said.

He pointed out that even if the government were to import sugar, it could not bring in supply that could sell at P44 to 45 a kilo because prices abroad were even higher.

Coscolluela said the SRA would do its best to provide sugar for retail sale at P43 and P44 a kilo for the next two weeks but next year, it would be a different story.

Coscolluela, who met with Maglaya, industry stakeholders, traders and retailers Friday, said he informed the DTI that the SRA had 528 bags of refined sugar that it could sell in one-and two-kilo bags to retail outlets at P42 a kilo so they could in turn be sold to consumers at P43.

After that, the SRA could source 700 bags of refined sugar a day to be sold at a proposed retail price of P44 a kilo, he said.

SRA would also be able to release 10,000 bags of refined sugar to provide P44 a kilo sugar for the next two weeks.

After that period, however, traders and retailers would want market forces to determine the price, he said.

Prices could even soften next year as the milling season peaks, he said.

"There is something basically wrong when government insist on pinning down prices when they go too high for the sake of consumers, yet it is not willing to prop up prices of sugar when they go below production costs," Coscolluela said.

Sugar industry players also found it disconcerting when government itself insisted on imposing a specific price that the market could not carry for a long time, he said.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net