Sugar agency assures of ample supplies
The sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) announced that there was enough local supply of sugar amid the increasing retail and wholesale prices of sugar in markets.
“We still have enough supply of sugar for our requirement up to the next milling season,” Sugar Regulatory Administrator Bernard C. Trebol said in a statement yesterday.
He cited inventory in sugar mills’ warehouses which exceeds 600,000 metric tons, excluding stock in warehouses owned by traders and wholesalers.
“We will not allow our country to run out of sugar. We assure our consumers that there will always be enough supply of sugar,” Mr. Trebol said.
SRA cautioned resellers regarding increasing sugar prices and advised the public to report any overpricing of sugar to the agency.
“We will not allow unscrupulous businessmen to create a situation where they will project a picture of shortage in the supply to their own advantage. We will work with other government agencies and run after retailers who are unnecessarily increasing prices,” Mr. Trebol said.
While retail prices of refined sugar remained at a prevailing price of P50 a kilo, the range of prices rose from P48 to P55 a kilo last week from P46 to P52 a kilo in the last week of May, according to the Metro Manila price bulletin of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics.
Prevailing retail prices of washed sugar on the other hand rose to P46 a kilo last week from P44 a kilo in the last week of May. However, retail prices of brown sugar remained at a prevailing price of P44 a kilo from the last week of May till the first week of June.
Meanwhile, prevailing wholesale prices surged in the first week of June from the last week of May with refined sugar increasing to P47 a kilo from P44.60, washed sugar increasing to P43.20 a kilo from P40.60 a kilo, and brown sugar increasing to P39 a kilo from P35.60 a kilo.
In a separate telephone interview, Aida F. Ignacio, SRA deputy administrator, told BusinessWorld, “Since the milling season has just finished, wholesalers may be thinking of a slight tightness in supply, but we assure the public that there is no shortage of sugar. In fact, we have a very comfortable supply in warehouses of mills and traders.”
She said that the SRA is currently conducting a physical count of sugar stock in warehouses of mills and traders to have an exact count of inventory.
“If ever there is a tightness in sugar supply, the agency will review the situation and probably have an import proposal, but as of now, we will not be doing any additional import of sugar aside from the 150,000 metric tons of sugar we are importing this year,” Ms. Ignacio said.
The government is set to import that amount before the end of the current sugar crop year on July 30 to cover the shortfall in sugar supply due to El Niño.
Sugar production for crop year 2009-2010 is seen to reach only 1.97 million MT, below the annual quota of 2 million MT, and an even lower production is seen for crop year 2010-2011, Mr. Trebol said in an earlier interview.
The Philippines also ships out between 136,000 MT and 137,000 MT to the US under an annual quota. Last month, the US allocated 24,571 MT on top of the additional 11,706 MT given in March to the Philippines after other countries were unable to fill their quota for this year. BusinessWorld