The United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED), the country’s largest independent sugar planters’ group, on Wednesday welcomed the move of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in instructing the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to regulate the entry of sugar-based products into the country.

“The volume of sugar premixes represents about four million bags of sugar amounting to roughly PHP10 billion.The continued lack of regulation for these sugar-based products is highly detrimental to the sugar industry,” UNIFED president Manuel Lamata said in a statement.

The Bacolod-based Lamata, representatives of Luzon Federation of Sugarcane Growers and Associations, Mindanao Sugar Federation, Philippine Sugar Millers Association, as well as members of the SRA Board, conferred with Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. during a consultative meeting in Manila on Tuesday.

Lamata said there is a need to investigate the “alarming volume of other sugars” entering the country in the last eight years, reaching 200,000 to 300,000 metric tons each year.

This is probably causing the stagnant demand for sugar in the past decade, he added.

Lamata thanked the DA chief for the “swift response” in directing the SRA to “look into the actual volumes of other sugars coming into the country, and if warranted, require them to acquire clearances as well.”

“We hope Administrator Azcona will make this a priority and can provide us updates before the next milling season starts,” he said.

Based on the tariff code 17.02 of the ASEAN Harmonized Tariff Nomenclature, only the entry of high fructose corn syrup is strictly regulated after the sugar industry demanded that products using such sweetener must be taxed higher after a decrease in sugar demand some eight years ago.

The entry of sugars like glucose, sucrose, maltose, dextrose, maltodextrin, and lactose are not being regulated.

“Before we knew it, we received reports that these are coming in, in staggering amounts,” Lamata said. (PNA)