NFA close to buying target volume

The National Food Authority (NFA) is now close to meeting its target of buying 1.4 M bags of sugar in 50 kilograms (Lkg) for this milling season.

In the last three months, the NFA has bought a cumulative total of 950,455 Lkg amounting to P658 million.

Aside from providing stability to the industry, NFA’s active sugar buying has saved the economy of some provinces, especially those heavily dependent on the sugar industry.

Agriculture officer-in-charge and NFA administrator Arthur C. Yap said the continuing intervention by the NFA in the local market of sugar has propped up and even pushed the mill gate price of the commodity.

The NFA buys sugar at P700 per Lkg from sugar mills without refineries and P720 from sugar mills with refineries. The price being offered by NFA, Yap said, provide sugar planters with a remunerative income that will encourage them to invest further in the industry.

Yap said the NFA buys "C" quedans or reserve sugar of planters associations and cooperatives to avoid competing with sugar marketed for domestic consumption by the sugar mills.

The major sugar producing areas with a high concentration of sugar mills are Regin VI, particularly Negros Occidental and Iloilo; Region VII especially Negros Oriental and Region X mostly in Bukidnon.

In Luzon, sugar mills are located in Cagayan in Region II, Pampanga and Tarlac in Region III and Batangas in Region IV.

Region VI tops the regions with the highest volume of sugar procured with 509,994 Lkg amounting to P354 million, followed by Region VII and Region X with 154,326 and 207,299 Lkg, respectively.

The NFA has started buying sugar following President Arroyo’s directive under Executive Order 293 to buy the commodity to absorb the excess supply and prop up the slumping prices.