Rising fuel prices have prompted the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) board to urge sugar mills to increase trucking allowances for farmers struggling with mounting transport costs.
SRA board member and planters’ representative David Andrew Sanson appealed to mill owners nationwide to provide additional support to producers as diesel prices climb amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
Sanson, in a letter to the mills, called for an “increase in trucking allowance and other measures to augment government relief efforts in addressing the sudden and steep surge of fuel prices due to the ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.”
The sharp rise in fuel costs is already straining operations in key producing areas, particularly Negros Island. The region accounts for more than 60 percent of the sugar output in the Philippines.
Sanson said diesel prices in Negros have breached P120 per liter in most areas, which has significantly increased the cost of hauling sugarcane from farms to mills.
