Sugar producers want consultations on import plan

The Confederation of Sugar Producers Association (CONFED) urged Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. to conduct consultations with planters regarding the proposed importation of 200,000 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar by September.

- Jasper Emmanuel Arcalas

CONFED wrote to Tiu Laurel to express its concerns over the plan of the government to allow the importation of refined sugar before the start of the next crop year 2024-2025 begins on Sept. 1.

The group claimed that there was no prior consultation regarding the proposed sugar import program.

“We were thus shocked to learn from a local news article about the government’s plan to import a specific volume for arrival by September without any explanation of the basis for such a plan,” CONFED president Aurelio Gerardo Valderrama Jr. wrote in the letter dated June 28.