Palace assures public of stable sugar supply

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang assured consumers yesterday that there would be adequate supply of refined sugar in the market despite reports of a shortage in recent days.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Anthony Golez said that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) would meet with sugar industry representatives to find ways of resolving the problems they have cited.

The sugar producers have indicated that the price ceiling imposed by the government has resulted in the scarcity of supply in the market.

Sugarcane growers have refused to sell to the millers because there is no assurance that they will get a fair market price for their product.

“Because of that issue (Trade) Secretary Peter Favila has been instructed to make sure… that DTI has always been consulting and being proactive with regard to this kind of issue,” Golez said.

Favila informed the Palace that the DTI is regularly in touch with the sugar industry players and is aware of the concerns faced by their sector and “would always make it a point to address these concerns and problems in a manner this is both beneficial for the government and the industry,” Golez said.

“What is more important right now is that Secretary Favila mentioned that we have adequate supply and we should make sure that they are all at reasonable prices,” he added.

The sugar producers have called for the lifting of the price ceiling on sugar because the price set by the DTI was too low.

Sugar Regulatory Administration head Rafael Coscolluela said the DTI committed an error in imposing a P38 per kilo price ceiling on sugar last Sept. 28 as it failed to consider the prevailing mill gate price of raw sugar.

Coscolluela explained that there is usually a three- to four-week gap in computing the selling price of refined sugar.

He said that the P38 per kilo prevailing before tropical storm “Ondoy” hit the country was based on a lower mill gate price of P1,077 per 50-kilogram bag.

Coscolluela pointed out that on Sept. 27 the mill gate price rose to P1257 per 50-kg bag which should have translated to a retail price of P41 per kilo.