Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, in a statement, said while sugar prices domestically may marginally ease as sugar stocks increase during the milling season starting this month, this will be “transitory.”
On that note, Salceda said the House Committee on Ways and Means will immediately conduct briefings with the Bureau of Customs on import levels of sugar and other sweeteners, and with the SRA on mandatory programs under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law to boost domestic production. The Philippines may have to import an average of 282,670 metric tons of sugar annually in the next decade to meet growing demand for the sweetener as local production stagnates, based on international projections.
“This is a problem we can no longer leave to the next generation. Every country on earth that has focused on sugar monocropping eventually suffered economic tragedy.”