Growers warn against foreign investment in sugar production

The country’s biggest group of sugar farmers has warned the government against the disastrous consequences of inviting foreign businessmen to invest in planting sugarcane for food.

Bukidnon Governor Jose Zubiri, national president of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations (Confed), said his group has expressed serious concern over recent reports that President Arroyo has invited Malaysian businessmen Robert Kuok to invest in an additional 30,000 hectares of lands in the Philippines to be planted to sugarcane.

Zubiri said that sugar prices are now dangerously low, as the low consumer demand could not absorb the increased sugar production brought about largely by higher farm yields. High cost of farm inputs is also aggravating the situation for sugar farmers.

He suggested that any additional lands to be planted to sugarcane should instead be devoted to ethanol production. The Senate has recently passed its own version of the biofuels bill that will mandate the five to 10-percent blending of ethanol with gasoline. A bicameral conference committee will soon deliberate on the Senate and House versions of the bill.

Zubiri earlier emphasized that the passage of the biofuels bill will solve the perennial rise and fall in domestic sugar prices as it would give sugar farmers an alternative market for their produce. But more importantly, he said farm incomes will double once the biofuels legislation is in place.

Kuok, ranked 114th in Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s richest people this year, is looking for a 30,000-hectare property in the Philippines where he can develop his own plantation and possibly set up other business ventures.

He personally informed President Arroyo of his plans during a business luncheon that was also attended by other businessmen.

He heads the multinational Kuok Group, with interests ranging from shipping to real estate to media. His Malaysia International Shipping Corp. is the leading dry bulk shipper in the Pacific Basin. His Transmile Group, an airfreight service firm, has landing rights in China and India. In Hong Kong, he owns modern warehouse and cargo distribution centers. His group also operates edible oils manufacturing facilities and 10 Coca-Cola bottling plants in China. The group also owns and manages extensive sugar and oil palm plantations, mills and refineries in Malaysia and Indonesia, and has 38 hotels throughout Asia Pacific including the luxurious Shangri-La Hotel chain.