EDITORIAL - Sugar prices still high

With the arrival of about 5,000 metric  tons of imported onions and the continuing domestic harvest, prices of the commodity have finally gone down to reasonable levels, falling below P100 a kilo in wet markets from the eye-watering P700 to P750 during the Christmas season.

What has stubbornly refused to come down is the price of sugar. And the government has yet to adequately address issues raised by certain senators and industry players regarding the importation of 440,000 metric tons of white refined sugar, which began arriving last month, weeks before the agency with the sole authority to approve such importations issued the order.

Last Feb. 9, Customs and agriculture personnel seized 6,500 metric tons of refined sugar from Thailand that arrived at the Port of Batangas without the requisite permit from the Sugar Regulatory Administration. Senators have learned that the SRA issued a new sugar import order only on Feb. 15. The SRA set Feb. 23 for accepting and assessing bids to import sugar, and up to Feb. 28 to pick the winning bids. The import order must be publicized.

Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban of the Department of Agriculture has ordered the seized sugar released, citing authority from President Marcos, who is the concurrent DA secretary, as well as Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin. Malacañang has also defended the importation that bypassed procedures set by law, citing the urgency of the situation.

As accusations of government-sponsored smuggling continue to be hurled, consumers have only one concern: to see sugar prices go down. Sugar prices, however, continue to range from P90 to about P110 – the same prices that made confectionery and other sugared food items account for the largest share of food inflation in the past months. Food prices in turn have fueled the 14-year-high inflation rate since the fourth quarter of 2022.

President Marcos has been largely silent about the latest controversy on sugar. Panganiban has admitted that he issued a memorandum on Jan. 13, allowing private firms All Asian Countertrade, Edison Lee Marketing and S&D Sucden to import 240,000 metric tons, 100,000 MT and 100,000 MT of sugar, respectively. On Feb. 27, Panganiban ordered the SRA to issue the import permits for the sugar seized in Batangas on Feb. 9.

SRA officials, however, are reportedly worried about being charged with economic sabotage for agricultural smuggling as well as plunder. The offenses normally do not allow bail and can earn offenders life in prison. Senators are also pursuing reports of hefty kickbacks from regulated importation of agricultural commodities.

In the meantime, consumers continue to wait for relief from steep sugar prices, which have doubled from just over a year ago. The supply must be stabilized to pull down prices ASAP, even as authorities dig deeper into allegations of corruption, hoarding and cartel-type operations that adversely impact consumers.