Sugar prices continue to dive

BACOLOD CITY – Sugar Regulatory Administrator James Ledesma said yesterday that the sugar industry is facing a price crisis but assured planters that his agency is doing everything to address it.

At the Thursday bidding, the psychological barrier was breached with millgate sugar prices dropping below production, Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines, said.

Prices this week hit a low of P690 per 50-kilo bag (Lkg) from P710 last week.

Sugar leaders have warned that prices below P700 is considered below production cost and will hurt small planters the most.

Ledesma said prices ranged mostly between P690 and P720 per Lkg.

Lamata said UNIFED’s domestic or "B" sugar sold at P691 at Southern Negros Development Co. in Kabankalan City, P690 at Central Azucarera de La Carlota and P716 at Hawaiian Philippines.

Planters Association of Southern Negros president Franklin Fuentebella said their sugar sold at P690.22 slipped further by P34.80 at Central Azucarera de La Carlota and at Victorias Milling Co. at P715 down by 15.

Members of the Philippine Sugar Alliance met to map out plans yesterday to address the price drop.

Ledesma said, "We are not the only industry in crisis but we are doing everything we can to address the problem."

"If people are unsatisfied I cannot do anything anymore," he said, "we will just have to survive this."

In August the last crop year ended with an overhang of 450,000 metric tons of nine million bags of sugar, he said. However, the figure has since gone down with the shipping out of stock for export, he said.

Indicators are that we will have a lower production than the 2.3 million metric tons we produced last year, he said. Ledesma sees a drop in this year’s sugar production by seven to eight percent.

Lamata said what is aggravating the situation for sugar producers is the rising cost of sugar production, noting this is the first time that a bag of fertilizer has cost more than a bag of sugar.

Lamata said even if government buys sugar, it will at best stabilize prices but they will still have to bite the bullet and face a possible drop in prices to P600.

Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Producers, said government should look into a possible cartel among fertilizer traders.

Prices of fertilizer are much cheaper abroad than the ones being sold in the country, traders appear to be making a profit of P200 to P300 per bag of fertilizer, he said.

"The President has allowed us to import fertilizer but it is hardly 10 percent of our requirements," he said.