PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has formally greenlighted the importation of 150,000 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar to “ensure” domestic supply and “manage” sugar prices.
The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) board, chaired by Marcos as the concurrent Agriculture Secretary, issued Sugar Order (SO) No. 2 Series of 2022-2023 on Tuesday that authorized the first importation program for the current crop year.
The SO 2 was signed by Marcos himself and was also signed by other members of the board: the new SRA Administrator David John Thaddeus P. Alba, Ma. Mitzi V. Mangwag (sugar millers’ representative) and Pablo Luis S.
Azcona (sugar planters’ representative). SO 2 was also signed by Senior Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo F. Panganiban.
The SO 2 was filed by the SRA at the Office of the National Administrative Register (ONAR), UP Law Center on Tuesday afternoon, together with SO 1. SO 2 will take effect three days after the filing at the ONAR.
“After taking into consideration all comments, inputs and information the SRA deems it necessary to adopt additional, responsive, pre-emptive measures to ensure domestic supply and manage sugar prices, in order to achieve the foregoing policy declarations through timely government intervention by way of importation in order to maintain a balanced supply and demand of sugar for domestic consumption,” SO 2, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror, read.
Industrial, consumer use
Under SO 2, the 150,000-MT refined sugar imports would be equally divided between industrial users and consumers. The eligible participants for the import program are all duly registered SRA international sugar traders in good standing for crop years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 and with renewed registration for crop year 2022-2023.
“The intention is that the imported sugar shall be open and available for consumption by all industrial users and consumers,” SO 2 read.
The SO 2 defined industrial users as food, confectioneries, biscuits, bread, candies, milk, juice, and beverage manufacturers that use refined sugar in the production of their finished products for sale exclusively in the domestic market.
Meanwhile, consumers, based on SO 2, shall refer to wholesalers and traders engaged in selling sugar in bulk to retailers and retailers refer to individuals selling sugar in small quantities to the general public for consumption.
The SO 2 stipulated that the allocation per registered SRA international sugar trader shall be on a prorated basis.
Eligible participants seeking to import sugar for industrial use will be prorated based on their excise tax payments for fiscal year 2020-2021. Furthermore, sugar importers that participated in the previous import program under SO 3 series of 2021-2022 cannot participate in the new import program to bring in sugar for commercial use.
The SRA will start accepting applications for the sugar importation under SO 2 within three days after the effectivity of the sugar order. “The award of allocations shall be three days after the last day of acceptance,” the document read.
The 150,000-MT sugar imports must arrive in the country not later than November 15 with all the eligible participants given one month from November 15 to completely distribute all their allocations to their respective clients.
Automatic conversion, fees
The SO 2 stipulated that all incoming sugar imports under the sugar order will be automatically classified as “B” sugar, meaning the imported sugar can already be used for domestic consumption without the need for reclassification by the SRA board.
“Given the urgency of the requirement for industrial users and consumers, so as not to compromise the availability of the current crop year production which is expected to improve in January 2023, all imported sugar under this Import Program shall automatically be classified as ‘B’ sugar,” SO 2 read.
The SO 2, however, noted that sugar importers must pay the necessary conversion fees upon application for import processing. The SO 2 added that the automatic conversion of the imported sugar shall be approved by the SRA Administrator.
“Only when approval from SRA Administrator is obtained will release of stocks from SRA registered warehouses or from vessels can be allowed for release to the domestic market,” it said.
SO 2 indicated that the SRA shall collect a clearance fee of P33 per 50-kilogram bag of refined sugar and every sugar import allocation shall be subjected to a P750 per 50-kilogram bag performance bond.
The SRA also issued on Tuesday SO 1, which formalized the sugar policy for the current crop year 2022-2023.
Under SO 1, the SRA board allocated all raw sugar production for the current crop year for domestic use. Based on SO 1, the projected raw sugar output in the current crop year would be 1.876 million MT, relatively flat from the previous crop year’s 1.815 MMT output.