Perez leads reg'l muscovado sugar confab
San Jose, Antique -- The Regional Development Council in coordination with the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) hosted the 1st Regional Conference on Muscovado Sugar held March 8-9, 2006 at Bacolod City.
The conference aims to provide clear and common understanding of the muscovado industry in the Philippines, and in the province of Antique in particular, in terms of its current status, its concerns and challenges, and recommend interventions. It serves also as a venue for stakeholders and decision makers to interact and identify collaborative action plans that will address the concerns of the muscovado industry in Antique within a three year period and provide mechanism to ensure that action plans are implemented and followed through.
Various agencies and important stakeholders of the muscovado industry in the region attended the two-day activity. Leading the participants is no less than the RDC chair and primemover of the conference Antique Governor Salvacion Z. Perez, who delivered the rationale of the conference.
SRA Administrator James Ledesma welcomed the participants and gave assurance that muscovdo sugar will be given attention by SRA as an important commodity and not just a by-product of the refined sugar. He also expected that after the conference, a road map for the muscovado industry in Western Visayas would be realized.
Likewise, Presidential Adviser for Western Visayas Rafael Cosculluela said that the development of the muscovado industry in Western Visayas is a special program of the RDC. He also sees a brighter future for the muscovado and a possibility for the small sugarcane producers to have control over production and the market.
Dr. Rodrigo E. Tapay, SRA manager for Panay and Negros introduced the participants which include among others, regional directors Arturo Valero (NEDA), Zenia Teruel (DOST), Dominic Abad (DTI), Alexis Arsenal (DAR), Edwin Trompeta (DOT), RDC Vice-Chair Boy Homicillada and representatives from the different provinces in the region , 10 from Antique, Iloilo, 3; Aklan 1, Capiz 3, Iloilo 3 and representatives from Quedancor, Land Bank, Alter Trade and the national government offices of DTI and SRA.
The first day activity was focused on providing inputs to the participants. SRA Manager Fernando H. Corpus, presented the state of the Philippine Sugar Industry. Antique Provincial Agriculturist Nicolasito Calawag gave updates on the Muscovado industry in Antique, its current status, concerns and recommendations.
According to Calawag, despite decreasing production volume of muscovado sugar, the province of Antique still remain as the top muscovado producer in the country. He said there is growing demand for organic muscovado sugar in both domestic and foreign markets that is considered as health food and an important ingredient that replaces the chemical-laden white commercial refined sugar.
Inputs on marketing and finance were discussed by Gierlie Sarmiento of DTI, Jeffry Manigo of Land Bank, Quedancor and Beth Mondejar of Alter Trade. An open forum followed. After which the group proceeded to tour the muscovado mill of Alter Trade, the leading company in exporting muscovado sugar to Europe, Japan and other countries.
After the tour, the group went to Balay OPSI, SRA-La Granja, La Carlota for a dinner and fellowship activity.
A plenary session on action planning was done on the second day. There was a review conducted on the pre-conference workshop output of Antique muscovado industry. Areas of concern were on the technical and production, financing, marketing and organizational. Regional directors actively participated in the drafting of action plans, which includes strategies, implementers and timeframe.
For monitoring mechanism, the participants decided to tap the Muscovado Technical Working Group (TWG), a sub-committee created under the Economic Development Committee of the RDC, which is chaired by Antique Provincial Agriculturist Nick Calawag.
Moreover, it was agreed during the conference that muscovado will be considered as one important product of the region and for the Regional Development Council to pass a resolution to this effect.