President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has directed the Department of Agriculture (DA), which he also heads as secretary, to speed up the importation of 64,050 metric tons of sugar to stabilize the price of the commodity.
The President said the DA needed to take action as he was concerned with the “very high inflation rate” for sugar.
Based on the November inflation report, the annual inflation for sugars, confectionery, and deserts reached 38 percent.
Memorandum Order 77, signed by DA Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, called for the immediate convening of the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) Advisory Council to expedite the importation of 64,050 metric tons of sugar.
The move will be done through the DA’s MAV mechanism, which sets the volume of a specific agricultural commodity that may be imported with a lower tariff.
The MAV is a commitment of the Philippines to the World Trade Organization to facilitate trade between countries.
The President’s move was met with opposition from the United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines, which asked him to stop importation while sugar milling is at its peak.
“We are at the peak of harvest [season], and we have abundant stocks of raw and refined sugar; as such, we see no need to import sugar at this time,” said the group’s president Manuel Lamata.
He said resorting to importation now would be “disastrous” to local sugar farmers.
On the other hand, the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. said that importation is necessary to bring down the price of sugar.
Earlier in Marcos’ term, several officials of the Sugar Regulatory Administration were dismissed following the sugar fiasco that involved the supposed importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar that the President deemed illegal.
Prevailing prices of sugar in Metro Manila as of Wednesday were at around P90 per kilo of brown and washed sugar and P95 per kilo of refined sugar.