This, after GMA asked sugar leaders to help lower the prices of corn, rice and sugar to ease the plight of the common consumer.
Apparently, the President was aware that sugarmen have been complaining about the rising cost of fertilizer which is now more than the price of sugar per bag.
Thus, Philsucor can depress fertilizer cost by first undertaking a government-to-government commercial transaction and second, by bringing them in tariff-free. Actually, fertilizers are almost tariff-free, but those of petroleum-based by-products have increased.
But the more welcome point raised by the President was when she urged industry leaders to resort to the loan window of the Development Bank of the Philippines to avail themselves of loans for the ethanol production program.
Although there had been prior expectations on the government’s endorsement of the ethanol manufacture program, the briefing by Dr. Acda of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños remained open-ended with admittedly still no detailed feasibility study.
Still, that assured government support for the sugar industry’s initiative to come up with an alternative energy source which the President herself described as sustainable and environment-friendly.
She cited the $57-million Talisay biomass project which will co-generate 30 megawatts of electricity with the First Farmers mill in Talisay City.
The Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) takes up 30 percent of the project. This is expected to go on commercial operation by August 2006.
The British power firm Bronze Oak Ltd. was reportedly investing more than $100 million more to put up three additional biomass co-generation power plants in Negros within the next five years to improve the development of renewable sources of energy.
The co-generation project envisions local partners, according to Bronze Oak Philippines president Graham Stonewell, as quoted by Confed Notes, a news digest of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Inc. (Confed).
President Arroyo also disclosed that she had given Customs Commissioner George Jereos and Cebu Customs collector Billy Bibit two months to produce significant results in their drive against sugar smugglers.
Apparently, she gave credence to repeated complaints by Cebu sugar leaders about alleged rampant smuggling of sugar and the more staggering reports of huge illegal rice imports. There were several incidents in the past where even shiploads of smuggled rice managed to elude impounding by Customs officials.
Philsutech president Leo Echaus welcomed the President and assured her of the continued cooperation and support of the industry for her economic program.
The President cited her release of more than P600 million of the Agricultural Competitive Enhancement Fund (ACEF) which went to the Mill District Development Councils’ projects that included the Sugar Regulatory Administration’s (SRA) procurement of tractors, establishment of nurseries for higher-yielding sugarcane varieties, farm-to-market roads, and the acquisition of other farm implements.
Actually, the ACEF contributed much to the phenomenal increase in sugar production that hit 2.3 million metric tons this year. In terms of productivity, the tonnage also sharply rose from 98 bags per hectare to 115 lkgs this year. This resulted in the Philippines shipping out 230,000 metric tons of sugar to the world market, in addition to the 135,000 MT as our share of the United States sugar quota.
Agriculture Secretary Albert Yap, on the eve of the President’s Cebu visit, sat down with sugar leaders who briefed him about the plans and programs of the industry. Confed leaders, led by Negros-Panay chapter chairman Bernardo Trebol, assured Yap of their cooperation and support for DA’s programs.
Administrator James Ledesma, who is also chairman of Philsucor, assured the President of swift action on her fertilizer import order.
To bring down fertilizer cost, the Philsucor may have to lower interest on loans that will be used to buy chemical fertilizer whose prices have zoomed with the oil price increases.
Already in the works is the possibility of bringing into the country urea, the main chemical fertilizer used by sugarcane farmers.
With the diversification of the industry not only producing food, but also energy and power, the President said the industry graduates from being a sunset industry into "the dawn, united forever into the new sunshine."
Member-cooperatives of the Confederation of Sugar Coope—ratives, headed by chairman Roberto Cuenca, held an emergency meeting at the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug to thresh out the availment of funds from Philsucor, chaired by Sugar Administrator James Ledesma.
Consultant Jesus Ramos said the President’s move hit correctly the major impediment to farmers. "By bringing down fertilizer costs, President Arroyo addressed one of the major constraints to the viability of the sugar industry," Ramos stressed.
Confed Negros-Panay chapter chairman Nene Trebol pointed out that a bag of urea now sells higher than a bag of sugar, a chilling prospect that had sugar farmers hanging on a tight rope on whether sugarcane farming is still worth investing in with the low millgate prices.
Confed cooperative members threshed out the details of the distribution of fertilizers to co-ops in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. That included freight costs, handling, etc.
Sugarmen also hailed the President’s directive to Customs Commissioner George Jereos and Cebu Customs Collector Billy Bibit to produce significant results against sugar smuggling in two months.
She also told sugarmen during the 51st Philippine Sugar Technologists’ Convention that she is directing the Tariff Commission to review its classification regulations for sugar-based imports to ensure that her directives are not circum—vented.
Some imported products, she pointed out, are being sheltered from her directives in the guise of tariff reclassification.
"The memo that (Philsutech) president Leo Echaus gave me earlier which I glanced through very quickly before I came in is one of the issues that you’ve raised. So I am anti-Tariff Commission," President Arroyo told the cheering delegates of the Philsutech Convention.
The President adverted to Executive Order No. 295 and Memorandum Order 134 to stop the smuggling of sugar-containing products and regulate prices.
But she added that she has been receiving reports of sugar smuggling. If prices go down because of competition, that is okay, but prices go down because of smuggling as well as other intrusive factors. "That’s not fair and we have to stop smuggling," she said.
She, however, added that the sugar industry is also challenged on how to remain profitable while consumers enjoy lower prices. "The answer is productivity and efficient transport and logistics," she emphasized. The goal, she added, is to bring down production cost to be competitive with Thailand, Australia, South Africa and even Brazil.