Government to shut down stores of sugar profiteers

(UPDATED) — The Department of Agriculture (DA) vowed on Tuesday to padlock stores of profiteers caught selling sugar above the suggested retail price of P52 per kilo. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said an initial check showed major supermarkets had been toeing the line, and many of the profiteers were in wet markets. "We will go after unscrupulous traders. We will lock down stores that sell sugar higher than P52 per kilo starting today," Yap told dzXL radio in Filipino. He cited reports reaching him indicating sugar was being sold for P60 or higher per kilo in some markets and mom-and-pop stores. Yap said they had started mobilizing price monitoring teams to coordinate with the Department of Trade and Industry in checking sugar prices. He reminded profiteers they would be charged criminally if caught overpricing. "There is a fine and penal provisions. They can get imprisoned," Yap pointed out. Earlier, Trade Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya said they would issue notices of violation against profiteers. For his part, Sugar Regulatory Administration head Rafael Coscolluela noted that while the suggested retail price of sugar is now P52/kilo, it could go up to P54 in the first week of February. Sugar release Meanwhile, the government is releasing 150,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar to the local market to ease tight supply and bring down prices. Sugar Regulatory Administrator (SRA) Rafael Coscolluela said his agency was coordinating with the Philippine Sugar Millers Association (PSMA) to make as much as 150,000 kilos available to poor consumers via the National Food Authority's Tindahan Natin outlets. He said the Agriculture department was also fast-tracking imports of 60,000–150,000 MT of raw sugar earlier than May. It was the SRA that recommended the P52-per-kilo price, which it said would vary weekly since mill gate sugar prices tend to vary that often. "This recommended SRP for the last week of January 2010 is reasonable because it is reflectiveof the wholesale/landed price of P2,400 per 50-kg bag," Yap told Favila in a letter dated January 25. He ordered the SRA to require sugar traders to liquidate their sugar release orders to ensure that sugar stocks withdrawn from the mills are delivered to the local market and are not smuggled out of the country. Yap noted that increasing production costs and bad weather have combined to cut yields over the past two years, leading to a global shortage of an estimated nine million metric tons. India's aggressive efforts to beef up its inventory have also driven international prices up, he added. Agriculture officials met with sugar millers, traders and accredited importers on Monday to discuss the mechanics of a tax expenditure subsidy and how they can avail themselves of the zero-tariff scheme. Consensus was reached during the Monday meeting to advance the planned imports by SRA-accredited traders to guarantee stock at the end of the milling season. Based on the daily monitoring of the Agricultural Statistics Bureau, prevailing prices of local sugar were P52 for a kilo of refined sugar and P44 for raw or brown sugar. Last year, sugar prices averaged P38 per kilo and P48 early this month. — GMANews.TV