Import clearance charges for prime fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been jacked as much as P30 per unit of quantity equal to 50 kilograms of sugar, a markup of 1,900 % from P1.50 in a transfer that the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) mentioned was an effort “to curb using synthetic sweeteners.”
In an announcement on Friday, SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona mentioned the rise was unanimously handed by the Sugar Board final month—August.
This might imply the issuance of what could be Sugar Order No. 4 for the crop 12 months 2023-2024. Nonetheless, a duplicate of the order has not been made public as of this writing.
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The United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines (Unifed), one of many teams that pushed for increased charges, lauded the most recent SRA transfer as this might profit the native sugar business.
“It’s been a very long time coming. It will encourage them to purchase native and never use cancer-causing sweeteners,” Unifed President Manuel Lamata mentioned in a message to the Inquirer on Friday.
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The SRA made this determination after business group leaders, together with Lamata, final month communicated to Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. their considerations “in regards to the inflow of synthetic sweeteners into the nation.”
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Equally, the Sugar Council in addition to the Nationwide Congress of Unions within the Sugar Trade of the Philippines wrote a letter to Tiu Laurel, elevating the alarm on the importation and use of “synthetic sweeteners that would trigger the widespread displacement of sugar farmers and sugar farm employees.”
Within the assertion, Azcona mentioned the SRA had instantly acted on these considerations.
“Thus, whereas the gathering of information on using synthetic sweeteners is ongoing, we found this and determined to instantly elevate the SRA charges for HFCS,” Azcona mentioned.
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HFCS is made when corn starch is damaged down into particular person molecules to supply corn syrup, which is pure glucose. Enzymes are then added to the syrup to transform among the glucose into fructose or sugar that naturally happens in fruits.
HCFS is utilized in processed meals and drinks as a substitute for extra frequent sweeteners like desk sugar or sucrose.
The SRA first charged HFCS importers P30 per bag by means of an order issued in February 2017.
The order was based mostly on “complaints from sugar farmers, sugar millers and employees, amongst others, that the unregulated importation of HFCS displaces using domestically produced sugar and thereby negatively impacts the stability of manufacturing, threatens the livelihood of business employees, and impedes the expansion of the sugar business.”
‘Different sugars’
The SRA additionally famous that when the clearance charge was decreased to P1.50 per bag a month later, the decrease charge was “suspected to partially trigger demand for home sugar stagnating up to now few years.”
Additional, Azcona mentioned the SRA was drafting one other sugar order following a gathering held final Aug. 6, throughout which varied business stakeholders sounded the alarm on the entry of “different sugars” or Tariff Code HS1702.
This worldwide tariff heading refers to different sugars, together with chemically pure lactose, maltose, glucose and fructose, and different associated commodities.
“This entails requiring importers of things beneath HS1702 to safe an import clearance from SRA and this has been beneath board dialogue since August,” the SRA head mentioned.
Knowledge from the SRA confirmed that the demand for uncooked sugar stood at 1.81 million metric tons (MT) as of Aug. 25, a rise of three.99 % from 1.74 million MT in the identical interval final 12 months.
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Of such quantity, home provide accounted for 1.799 million MT whereas whole imports stood at 5,975 MT.
