To balance domestic supply and demand while stabilizing retail prices, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) in the Philippines has given the go-ahead to import 440,000 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar no later than April of the current year.
Allocation
A copy of Sugar Order No. 6, which permits a new round of importation without the signature of President Ferdinand Marcos J., who serves as both the chairman of the sugar board and the secretary of agriculture, was posted on the SRA website on February 15th.
Consumers will receive at least 200,000 MT, and the remaining 240,000 MT will be reserved for the nation’s two-month buffer stock, which the SRA will release to consumers after receiving board approval.
Manufacturers, industrials, retailers, repackers, wholesalers, and traders are all considered consumers according to the SRA. By April, a majority of the imports of refined sugar should enter the country.
Sugar Imports
For the matter of the first tranche of 100,000 Metric Tonnes (MT), shall arrive “as soon as possible” while for the second tranche covering another 100,000 MT, shall be delivered before 1st April 2023. Meanwhile, the 240,000 MT of sugar stockpile must arrive in the nation no earlier than April 1.
For the case of the latest importation “shall be open and voluntary to natural or juridical persons” and shall be duly registered with the agency as an international sugar trader in good standing. As per the Department of Agriculture’s most recent price monitoring, refined sugar is now selling in Metro Manila for between P87 and P110 per kilogram, up from just P65 per kilogram a year ago.
Pablo Luis Azcona, who represents planters on the SRA board stated that they anticipate sugar prices to decrease to the P85 per kilogram level once the first shipment of refined sugar enters the nation.
Applications For Imports
The Regulation Departments of the SRA in Quezon City and Bacolod City of Philippines would begin to accept applications for requirements from the order’s date of effectivity for five calendar days. The requirements of the regulation departments include the volume of sugar applied for, a duly notarized application letter, country of origin and the specific address of the SRA-registered warehouse where the imported sugar would be stored.
The volume allotted to an eligible importer must match what the SRA board recommends and what the Department of Agriculture accepts.
A P33 fee will be charged by the SRA for each 50-kilogram bag of imported refined sugar. Senior Undersecretary for Agriculture Domingo Panganiban, SRA Administrator David John Thaddeus Alba, and SRA Board Members Ma. Mitzi Mangwag and Pablo Luis Azcona all signed the most recent order.
Azcona also said that “The idea of the government is to have sugar in the country because it will stabilize everything. Everybody will know that we already have the sugar here in reserve.”
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REFERENCE
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