SRA wants supermarkets to follow Robinsons lead on sugar pricing

MANILA, Philippines — The Sugar Regulatory Administration is hoping that big grocery chains will follow the move of Gokongwei-led supermarket to bring down prices of sugar amid the continued rise of prices of other basic commodities.

SRA said Robinsons Supermarket, a division of listed Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc., is now selling refined sugar at P50 per kilogram and raw brown sugar at P45 per kilo in support of the government’s move to bring down prices of sugar and eventually help curb inflation.

Robinsons was previously selling P64 per kilo for refined and P55 per kilo for raw brown sugar.

The grocery chain has 160 supermarkets nationwide and all branches will start selling sugar at lower prices.

“I hope the rest will follow and do something good for the general public,” SRA administrator Hermenegildo Serafica said.

Latest market monitoring showed that other supermarkets are selling sugar at P63 to P71 per kilo for refined and P53 to P55 per kilo.

The Philippines is set to import anew up to 300,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar, the second time for the year, as part of efforts to bring down prices of the commodity.

For the new crop year which started this month and will end in August next year, the Philippines expects to produce 2.225 million MT of sugar.

This is seven percent higher than this year’s 2.08 million MT production. However, the 2017 output failed to reach SRA’s target of 2.1 million MT.

Latest data showed local raw-sugar production rose to 899 MT from only 160 MT last year.

Output in terms of 50-kilogram bags reached 17,980 from 3,200.