Sugar producers buck DOF plan on liberalization

MANILA, Philippines — Sugar producers are bucking the plan of Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno to further liberalize the sugar industry by allowing industrial users to import their own requirements to mitigate price increases amid the push to tax sugary food and beverages.

In a statement yesterday, the United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) made an appeal to President Marcos to ignore calls to allow industrial users to directly import their sugar needs as a concession to plans of increasing taxes on sweetened beverages.

UNIFED president Manuel Lamata said they are “totally against the move of Diokno to liberalize importation in favor of a few industrial users.”

“He (Diokno) wants to further enrich these industrial users, even knowing that this move will kill the more than five million Filipinos who are dependent on the sugar industry,” he said.

Meanwhile, National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) NFSP president Enrique Rojas also strongly opposed the direct sugar importation by beverage manufacturers as this will “destroy livelihood of thousands of marginal sugarcane farmers, will not result to lower prices of sweetened beverages and will simply further enrich these companies.”

“Allowing manufacturers of sweetened beverages to directly import sugar will wreak havoc on the long-established government regulations over the sugar industry, and it will further destabilize the livelihood of thousands of marginal sugarcane farmers,” Rojas said in another statement.

The DOF is looking to expand the base for sugar products by increasing the tax rate under the TRAIN Law to P12 per liter regardless of the type of sweetener used.

As a compromise to the higher tax, Diokno wants to allow manufacturers to bring in their own sugar supply using the Rice Tariffication Law as model for all agricultural products covered by non-tariff barriers.

Currently, importers can only import sugar if the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) issues an order allowing them to do so.

UNIFED said it is hoping that the President will not endorse this plan, which was never even done in consultation with the sugar industry.

“We know President Marcos’ heart is with and for the farmers as he has told us so, and we are calling for his intervention on this matter,” Lamata said, adding that the plan to raise taxes and liberalize the sugar industry is clearly “anti-farmer,” given its ill effects on sugar farmers.

Earlier, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) bucked the proposal to further liberalize the domestic sugar industry, saying more imports will not lower the current high prices nor cushion the impact of taxes on sugary beverages.

“While we are importing sugar in record volume, prices of sugar went up by at least 80 percent under Marcos Jr. The retail price of refined sugar in markets went from P54.50 in June 30, 2021, to P90 June 2022 and, more recently, sugar prices have gone up to P110 per kilo,” KMP chairman Danilo Ramos said.

The peasant group said majority of sugar farmers and workers in the sugar industry stand to suffer the same plight of rice farmers affected by rice tariffication once full liberalization of the sugar industry takes effect. — Gilbert Bayoran, Romina Cabrera