NFA assures millers it won't import sugar to lower prices

The National Food Authority (NFA) assured millers on Wednesday there was no plan to import sugar to curb spiraling prices. Instead, the agency will coordinate with the industry to ensure stable supply. NPA Spokesman Rex Estoperez told dzBB radio that in the past, an executive order had allowed the agency to import sugar to keep prices down, but the NFA was not inclined to do that now. "It looks like we will not be doing that [importing sugar]... Let's check the situation of the sugar millers first," he said in Filipino. Estoperez said the NFA was more keen on acting as a conduit for selling sugar produced by the millers at its Tindahan Natin stores to thwart profiteering. The NFA would use its own funds to buy sugar from the millers, he added. Based on daily monitoring by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, 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. Early this month, however, prices hovered at P48 per kilo. On Tuesday, Sugar Regulatory Administration chief Rafael Coscolluela said they were coordinating with the Philippine Sugar Millers Association to make available to poor consumers as much as 150,000 kilos of sugar through NFA outlets. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has said increasing production costs and bad weather had combined to cut yields over the past two years, leading to a global shortage of an estimated nine million metric tons of sugar. — YA/NPA, GMANews.TV