A truly merry Christmas in Negros

"Merry Christmas" transcended the traditional season’s greeting for most Negrenses as recent developments buoyed up people’s spirits, especially the rise in the price of domestic sugar at the mill site. In some instances, millgate prices rose to as high as P1,091 per Lkg. and even exceeded expectations.

This contradicted the usual trend of lower millgate prices before Christmas, according to Negros-Panay chapter’s chairman of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Association Luis Tongoy.

Last Thursday, prices went up to P1,030 per Lkg. in the Hawaiian Philippines mill district while the MMLCPI sold their sugar at P1,008.21 per Lkg.

The independent Escalante-Sagay planters cooperative also sold their B (domestic sugar) at P1,031 per Lkg., while the Negros Oriental Planters Association and the Central Azucarera de Bais planters sold theirs at P1,027.15.

NOPA-URSUMCO sugar was priced at P1,030, while Pason (Planters Association of Occidental Negros) fetched a price of P1,031 per Lkg.

Prices of "A" sugar (destined for the US) ranged from P1,018 to P1,023 per Lkg., virtually at par with domestic sugar.

This brought a really merry Christmas to sugar producers. Most of them had earlier complained that they may not be able to afford to pay the 13th month pay of their workers and their Christmas bonuses. Now, with better prices, there was no more excuse for them to continue pouting.

World sugar prices

What further buoyed up their spirits of Negrenses was the report that the price of sugar had climbed up to 14.5 cents per pound. That’s comparable to our current domestic sugar prices.

To a certain extent, this can discourage sugar smuggling since there is hardly any difference between the price of imported sugar and those grown domestically.

Then, there was the clamor by US sugar consumers to increase the sugar quota of the US agriculture department with the perceived shortage.

This makes it troubling for American lawmakers such that the US farm bill will have to be tackled before next year’s election.

The United States last week officially hiked its US sugar quota, allotting an additional 38,600 metric tons to the Philippines. This prompted Sugar Administration James Ledesma to relay the appeal by the US government for international traders to accelerate their shipment of the Philippines’ fourth quarter quota share.

But that was not just good news. Some quarters started questioning the increase in millgate prices. These quarters were wondering whether domestic traders were eyeing moves for next year and thus, prodding an unprecedented hike in millgate prices at this time of the year.

But then, there is no denying the tightness of the domestic supply situation, which has failed to narrow the disparity between supply and demand. Withdrawal or consumption figures showed a big drop in local sugar stocks. Thus, the additional order from the US is expected to further shave sugar stocks available locally.

This may explain the stiff competition among local traders for the current sugar stocks. Or there may be an expectation of an increase in consumption by early next year as the economy picks up.

Well, whatever the reason is, there is no denying that in Negros Occidental and Oriental Negros, the sugar price hikes provided a relief to sugar producers who have been assailed by the high cost of inputs, especially fertilizers.

In the case of the world price of sugar, Tongoy and national Confed president Rey Bantug pointed out that the news that the European Union had committed to doing away with subsidized sugar, would bring down the available EU sugar for the world market to only 1,400,000 metric tons. That’s a long way down from the more than four million metric tons it usually buys from the world market.

Correspondingly, it also lowered its sugar production by some three million metric tons. This was reportedly due to the early onset of the rains in the South Central areas of the country. These are the areas planted to sugarcane crops. The early start of the rains reportedly caused waterlogging and rendered large tracts of sugarcanes unharvestable.

Brazil also predicted a scramble between sugar and ethanol. With sugar prices rising in the world market, there is a strong possibility that Brazil’s ethanol production may also go down a bit.

Yap appointment welcomed

The nomination of former Agriculture Secretary Jose Yap as head of the presidential job generation, a Cabinet position, was greeted with enthusiasm by Negrense sugar leaders, especially by Sugar Regulatory Administration James Ledesma.

Ledesma had worked with Yap, and he was all for the sincere and dedicated commitment of Yap on agricultural, especially the sugar industry. It was Yap who implemented for the second time the intervention by the National Food Authority (NFA) in sugar purchase. This saved sugar prices from plummeting to prohibitive levels last year and enabled sugar producers to ride the low prices crisis.

Both Rey Bantug and Luis Tongoy, national and Negros Panay chair of the Confed, said Yap had always impressed them with his sincerity and strong reaction to problems brought to his attention by sugar industry leaders.

Bantug said Yap not only prodded the NFA to intervene in sugar purchasing, but he also allowed the NFA to work in tandem with Confed in addressing the problem of rice allocation for sugar workers.

That was something sugar workers can never forget as they were able to buy NFA rice through their planters associations at prices at par with the NFA retail price," Bantug disclosed.

Yap was one of the best secretaries to have headed the agriculture department," said Tongoy.

At the same time, Yap reportedly gave impetus to the government’s bio-ethanol national program. "He was the one who explained some of the pitfalls of the program, enabling our legislators to anticipate the need to provide in their bills tax. Incentives and such other things as guide rules on how to avail of the program for purposes of encouraging investors," stressed Tongoy.

As Job Generations chief, Bantug said he has all the reason to be optimistic that Yap will live up to expectations and fulfill the mission assigned to him by President Arroyo," stressed Ledesma.

That is one appointment by the President that seems to have been greeted with enthusiasm by all I had contacted or asked about Yap.

ADDENDUM. I managed to sit down with members of the so-called Sunshine Boys yesterday. This is an exclusive club of some of the top business executives of Negros Occidental. Most of them, including Ricardo Yanson, Asia’s biggest transportation magnate, former Lions governor Pompeyo Querubin, president William Mirano, president Cerilo Sarcepuedes, long-time head of the Negros Occidental High School, and former PEA Administrator Yulo were taking breakfast at the McDonald’s. This is their favorite place in Bacolod. And they were all praises for president Emeritus Carlos Javellana of the Southern Negros Fil-Chinese Chamber of Commerce Inc. (FCCCI) who distributed to the street children some 3,000 empanadas on Christmas Day. No, it was not just the ordinary empanada. These have mango fillings. Good for nutrition. And, as pointed out by Querubin, "the streetchildren lined up. They never jostled with one another for their share of the empanadas," he added. Then I learned that Charlie had also distributed more of the same to children in other areas of Bacolod. "Just to satisfy the need for better food on Christmas day," he said. "Thank God for such Christians."