Shortage in sugar? An economist in Congress offers expert help.
Albay representative Joey Salceda’s solution is pretty rudimentary: Avoid wastage, both in consumption and serious misallocation of a resource of most glaring value.
Salceda argues the President can use programs to ensure domestic harvest (expected to begin this month) is efficiently processed to max yield.
The National Biofuels Board can also exempt sugarcane as source of fuel.
VP Sara’s DepEd is encouraged to ban soda in public schools. (Half of a recently proposed import of sugar was earmarked for the production of sweetened beverages.)
The Sugar Industry Development Act is also pivotal in maximizing utilization of sugarcane resources and improving farmer income.
Crucial that the Department of Agriculture propose a better-formulated schedule of imports and mitigation measures similar to Rice Tariffication Law mechanisms.
“I propose that major sugar imports be timed in leaner months, while imports during harvest season be in more carefully considered tranches,” Salceda said. “Before a sugar import order is considered, its effects on sugar farmers should be considered, and mitigating measures should already be proposed.”
On Wednesday, the President rejected the proposal to import an additional 300,000 metric tons of sugar, which business groups said would help the value chain reeling from refined sugar pegged at P100 por kilo.
Concurrently Agriculture Secretary, Marcos had promised “food sovereignty”, which prefers local food production to importation in a climate depressed by global shortages.