Amid liberalization, sugar sector focuses on small farmers

MANILA, Philippines — Amid the planned liberalization, the local sugar industry is crafting a roadmap that focuses on low-yielding farmers to allow them to catch up in production and meet national demand.

Sugar Regulatory Administration board member for the planters side Emilio Yulo said the industry is now coming up with a consolidated plan and updated roadmap to propel the industry and compete with ASEAN neighbors.

“There is an existing sugar masterplan but when they made that before, was liberalization on deck? It was not, there was no mention of liberalization. So this one will be in context of liberalization, we will have tangible targets and we cannot liberalize because we cannot compete with our ASEAN neighbors,” Yulo said.

The existing sugar masterplan is more than two-decade old as it started way back in 1997.

“We are taking a look at productivity, we accept the fact that productivity-wise, we are really behind, but at least accepting that would mean we have to find a solution,” he said.

Tatak Kalamay convenors Gerardo Locsin said the industry would focus on small farmers producing 30 to 40 metric tons per hectare per harvest. About 92 percent of the sugar sector are small marginal farmers and only a few are producing 80 to 90 MT per hectare.

Now, the industry targets a 10 percent increase every two years or about 200,000 MT.

Domestic consumption is about 2.4 million to 2.6 million MT and the industry is producing roughly two million MT every crop year.

“We are targeting the marginal farmers because you have a big room for improvement rather than those big ones, but we are going to use those people producing 90 to 100 MT for them to show how it’s done so the marginal farmers can follow, we want them to follow a template,” Tatak Kalamay convenor David Alba said.

“We should be able to start next planting season. We will already start with the new variety that we want to distribute. If we reach 2.5 to 2.6 million MT, we don’t have to talk about importation, we just have to talk about pricing,” he said.

The sugar industry recently scored a victory after all lawmakers in the Senate junked government economic managers’ plan to open up the sugar industry to importation as such move runs contrary to President Duterte’s thrust towards food security.

In a resolution, 22 senators unanimously urged the Executive department not to pursue the planned liberalization of the sugar industry with the end in view of safeguarding the welfare of sugar farmers and industry workers in more than 20 provinces.

This after the Department of Finance called for replacement or removal of quantitative restrictions and paving the way for the liberalization of sugar importation. Early this year, the government already hinted on the liberalization of the industry.

Liberalization is being pushed because of the premise that local sugar prices are higher than those in the world market making local prices and sugar-containing food products for export uncompetitive.