"Please stop trying to bring down the price of sugar in the open market by raising the bogey of importation and hoarding," a sugar leader appealed to Sugar Regulatory Administrator James Ledesma yesterday.

The government plan to import sugar and to go after sugar hoarders has enabled traders to buy the sugar of producers at prices lower than that dictated by market forces under a free enterprise, Arsenio Al. Acuña, president of the Negros del Norte Planters Association Inc., said in a letter to Ledesma.

SRA chairman James Ledesma said in response that he is not against high prices, what he is against are manipulated prices, which he thinks has been corrected at indicated by last week's buying.

Sugar prices had gone beyond P1,350 per Lkg earlier and dropped to below P1,200 last week following government's announcement of importation and action against hoarders.

Ledesma yesterday said he thinks millgate prices will level off at P1,200 per Lkg for "B" or domestic sugar. The move to import was triggered by the unusually high prices but now that they have gone to what appears to be the real market level no one will import now, he said.

However, the importation of 50,000 MT at the end of the milling season will still be needed to meet an expected shortage in supply by then, he said. Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, said it has been agreed that the importation will take place in June and not earlier as announced.

Acuña claimed that by raising publicly the issues of importation and hoarding, Ledesma umistakably gave the traders the impression that he is "assisting them" in their effort to lower their buying price of sugar down to an unfair level, which is not justified by the price of sugar in the open market.

Considering that sugar in the world market is 20 cents a pound and still going up imported sugar cannot be sold in the Philippines for less than P1,4000 per Lkg, Acuna said.

Acuña asked how Ledesma can tell the traders that he wants the price of sugar to be within the range of P1,200 to not more than P1,400. He also said importation is not feasible at this time because of the exorbitant price of sugar in the world market, he added.*CPG

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The national government may find itself at the losing end if it decides to pursue its plan to import sugar at this time as a measure to ease domestic prices, an official of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Negros-Panay chapter said.

There is no need for President Arroyo to import sugar because the domestic prices have stabilized already, Confed Negros-Panay president Luis Tongoy said adding that there is also enough supply to meet domestic needs because it is the peak of the milling season at this time.

"To import now when we are at peak milling season will have a long term detrimental effect on five million people working in the sugar industry," he stressed.

Latest production figures from the Sugar Regulatory Administration showed that raw sugar balance as of January 22, is 501.479 metric tons while refined sugar is at 103.773 MTs.

However, a search reportedly conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry, the Sugar Regulatory Administration and the National Bureau of Investigation last week in Metro Manila yielded negative results of the alleged sugar hoarding.

Such move, however, reportedly led to a drop in sugar prices at P1,150 per Lkg. or 50-kilo bag during last Thursday's trading, or down by P250 from bidding price of P1,400 per bag two week's ago.

Sugar producers are still hoping that prices will remain at P1,200 per bag as this level is what they believe is still "affordable to consumers and profitable to producers," reports said.

Tongoy said that importing sugar now will be much more expensive. Instead, industrial users can buy directly from the producers, he added.

He said it will be much more expensive for independent importers who will be paying a 65 percent tariff for sugar from the world market or amounting to P2,400 per Lkg and even sugar imported in the AFTA regions will be levied with 38 percent tariff and will still come out higher at P2,000 per Lkg.*RLE

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