DA: Sugar price drops by P8/kilo

MANILA, Philippines — The retail price of refined sugar has dropped by P8 to P92 per kilo from P100 per kilo, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Based on the DA’s monitoring of Metro Manila markets, sugar prices ranged between P74 and P92 per kilo compared to P74 and P100 on June 6.

Washed sugar ranged between P64 and P90 per kilo and brown sugar between P62 and P90.

White sweeteners’ retail price went down to P90 per kilo on June 10.

Sugar farmers have backed the Philippine Sugar Millers Association (PSMA)’s position that there is no need to import sugar.

The Philippines has enough inventory of local sweeteners to last beyond the crop year’s end, it noted.

The combined sugar volume produced by mills that are PSMA members reached over 65 percent, according to Sugar Council spokesman Rafael Coscolluela.

The Sugar Council is a coalition of three sugarcane producer federations: the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations, the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters and the Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers.

The council accounts for 67 percent of the country’s sugar production.

More raw sugar and refined sugar have been produced than the previous year, Coscolluela said.

Inventory levels have risen, with raw sugar up by 26 percent and refined sugar up by 35 percent, he added.

The inventory covered over 135,000 tons or 2.7 million bags of imported refined sugar brought in last year that have not even been withdrawn or used, he said.

“The Sugar Council found equally disturbing the allegation that withdrawals for imported refined sugar shot up by 16 percent while withdrawals for locally refined sugar plummeted by over seven percent,” Coscolluela said.

Demand for raw sugar dropped by over four percent as a result, much to the disadvantage of local farmers, he noted.