2023 a good start for sugar industry, NegOcc lawmaker says

By Dolly Yasa

Bacolod City – The year 2023 will be a good start for the sugar industry as prices strongly rebounded after a 3-week slide.

Negros Occidental 5th District Rep. Emilio Bernardino Yulo, who was formerly a board member of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said producers are happy to see “sugar prices bounce back after almost a month of downward slump.”

“Prices have breached the P3,000 per 50-Kg bag which will make it a little bit profitable for our farmers who were on their toes in the past weeks, seeing the downtrend in sugar prices,” Yulo said, adding that the current price is “comfortable enough to ease the fears among the planters.”

He said there is a “misconception” that planters earn from the high cost of retail sugar that continues to prevail in metro areas, not knowing that in the past weeks, “planters barely break even with the slump in millgate prices.”

Yulo said the national government should continue to temper consumer prices and warn those who capitalize on the sugar issue because “there is no reason for retail prices to run away as we have enough sugar supply and the milling season is still ongoing.”

“We urge government to take a look at the entire supply chain to determine who is making a windfall from the high retail prices because it is definitely not the sugar farmers,” he added.

Yulo said that perhaps government can also take a look at lifting the Reformed Value Added Tax as a means to temper retail prices on consumer items like sugar.

“With this new development, I am sure the farmers will openly welcome and usher in the new year with positivity and hope,” he added.