The Department of Trade and Industry will keep on pushing for the direct importation of sugar by food processors to boost the exports of Philippine food.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said over the weekend it was beneficial for the export industry if processors could obtain sugar imports at a cost of P1,700 to P1,900 per 50 kilogram bag.
“What we are after is to make the cost of production competitive enough so that manufacturers can produce at import volume level,” he said
Exporters, he added, informed the department that they would rather not produce if they could not get hold of cheaper sugar.
Some food processors had scaled down production due to the high cost of local sugar, Lopez said.
The Export Development Council met Friday to discuss how to address production constraints.
“We’re slowly regaining the growth we lost. From a higher base of 20 percent last year, exports (are) now positive at 4.1 percent in June to July. It is our hope that exports will continue its good trend until yearend. Hopefully, we’ll hit 9-percent (growth) by yearend,” Lopez said.
