Drive vs sugar smuggling gains ground
The Sugar Anti-smuggling Office (SASO) continues its campaign with a series of raids recently, particularly in a warehouse in Pampanga.
SASO head General Joel Goltiao said they seized 67 sacks of imported sugar, in coordination with the Department of Trade and Industry Region 3 and Bureau of Customs.
“The seized sugar are now with the BOC and appropriate actions will be made,” he said.
Another supermarket in Tarlac City has been found selling sugar bearing a fake Luisita sugar label. “This is one of the modus operandi of the smugglers, they repack the smuggled sugar using packaging of locally produced sugar and sell them at suggested retail price,” Goltiao said.
With these developments, local traders and retailers have been very cautious in buying imported sugar for fear of confiscation and seizure.
The SASO is a concerted effort of the sugar industry to curb smuggling, which has been hurting the industry for so long.
Around 300,000 metric tons of sugar are being smuggled into the country displacing that much of locally produced sugar most of which are sourced from sugarcanes from small farmers tilling five hectares or less. These farms comprise 80 percent to 85 percent of all the sugarcane farms in the country.
The SASO, created under the auspices of the Sugar Master Plan Foundation Inc., aims to focus on intelligence/information gathering on illegal sugar shipments and potential/ actual entry points.
It also seeks to create a network of sources and databases which will provide the SMPFI and appropriate government authorities with credible information against sugar smuggling for their evaluation and appropriate action.
Since SASO operated a few months ago, supply of illegal imported sugar has been on a standstill as most suspected smugglers are waiting for developments in relation to the administration of President Noynoy Aquino.
Goltiao said he is hopeful that with the new administration, they can minimize smuggling in the country, if not totally eradicate it.
