Food exporters press demand for sugar quota

If meat processors and corn users such as hog raisers and feed millers are allowed to import under the minimum access volume (MAV) program of the government, why are industrial users of sugar such as food processors and food manufacturers, not given the same privilege?

This is the question bugging the members of the Philippine Food Processors and Exporters Organization (Philfoodex) who said such "discrimination" has an adverse effect on hundreds of food manufacturers and food processors who depend on the supply of low-cost sugar to sustain their operation.

"The price of sugar in the local market is killing us. This is the major factor that heavily burdens the food processing and manufacturing industry. We are asking President Arroyo and Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor to help us by allowing us to import our sugar requirements," Philfoodex president Jesus T. Tanchanco Sr. said.

He said allowing Philfoodex members to import their sugar requirements will keep their operations afloat in the light of increasing competitiveness in the foreign market and the liberalization of food imports into the country.

In recent letter to Mrs. Arroyo, Tanchanco said the current cost of P1,200 to P1,300 per 50-kilo bag of sugar in the wholesale market has become a heavy burden for food processors and had made them uncompetitive with other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

He said it is not fair for the government to give the importation of sugar solely to sugar producers. The importation of the commodity, he said, should also be given to users of sugar-containing products.

The former food minister said Philfoodex members only need fairness, justice and reasonableness. The government should help the sugar industry but not at the expense of thousands of food manufacturers, processors and exporters, he said, adding that "it should be a ‘win-win’ game where everybody, not just one sector of an industry, should win."

"If this is done, then everybody will benefit including the countless, farmers fisherfolk and vegetable and fruit growers who are the main suppliers of raw materials used by food processors and food manufacturers.