Sugar should not go beyond P48/kilo — DTI

The Trade department said on Monday it would go after vendors who sell sugar for more than P48 a kilo, adding that retailers face charges for overpricing. "This is not price control, but is just a price guide. But we will not hesitate to slap vendors with notices of violation if they sell sugar above P48 per kilo," Trade Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya told dzXL radio in Filipino. "It is not bad to make a profit but it becomes bad if the profit is too much," she added. Maglaya said she expected the Department of Agriculture to formally recommend this week suggested retail prices for sugar of P45-P48 per kilo. Last Friday, sugar prices surged by 15 percent to P60 from P52 in the prior week, an increase that Sugar Regulatory Administration chief Rafael Coscolluela said was too much. Maglaya said stalls that fail to justify the overprice might be formally charged, similar to what they did with cement overpricing late last year. She urged consumers to report vendors selling sugar above P50/kilo to the Department of Trade and Industry hotline at 751–3330. She said reports should include the vendor's specific stall. Meanwhile, the SRA's Coscolluela said the government does not plan to import more sugar until April since this could trigger more speculation and drive prices up further. "Our target is to import sugar by April or May, so we can have a two-month buffer stock when milling stops in July," he told dwIZ radio. But Coscolluela also admitted that world sugar prices might go up because India and the US plans to import the commodity, with India planning to import two to three million tons and US crops suffering damage due to frost. "These are factors that may tend to drive up world prices a little more. If the Philippines will import sugar too, world prices will likely go up further," he said. Prices of bread products are expected to go up next month due to the unabated rise in sugar prices. The Philippine Baking Industry Group (Philbaking) has said the price of loaf bread will increase by P2 per pack, while pandesal will go up by a peso for every pack of 10. Philbaking President Walter Co earlier said they had been absorbing the costs since September when the price of sugar was only P31 per kilo. — GMANews.TV