750K metric tons for industrial users, while another 750K MT for consumers; delivery set not later than November 15, 2022
(Eagle News) – The Sugar Regulatory Administration has authorized the importation of 150,000 metric tons of refined sugar – half of which are allocated to industrial users, while the other half is allocated to consumers.
In SRA’s Sugar Order No. 2 signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and other agriculture and SRA officials, the sugar to be imported under the SRA order should arrive not later than November 15, 2022. Participating importers shall also distribute the sugar imports to their respective clients within one month or 30 days.
The maximum volume covered by Sugar Order No. 2 shall not exceed 150,000 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar – 75,000 MT allocated to industrial users and 75,000 allocated to consumers.
“This import program shall be open to all duly registered SRA International Sugar Trade in good standing for crop years 2020-21 and 2021-22, and with renewed registration as International Sugar Trader for Crop year 2022-23.”
“The intention is that the imported sugar shall be open and available for consumption by all industrial users and consumers,” the order stated.
The order also clarified that the industrial users referred to those in the manufacture of food, confectionaries, biscuit, bread, candies, milk, juice and beverages that use refined sugar in their finished products for sale exclusively in the domestic market.
Consumers also refer to wholesalers and traders engaged in selling sugar in bulk to retailers. Retailers, on the other hand, “refer to individuals selling sugar in small quantities to the general public for consumption.”
-Imported sugar to be strictly kept, monitored in authorized warehouses-
The order also specified that the imported sugar covered by the order “shall only be stored in an SRA-registered warehouse or directly to the declared Industrial User’s warehouse or Consumer’s warehouse” as indicated in the importer’s application. But these warehouses should first be “pre-inspected to avoid co-mingling of stocks, should there be any other than the imported sugar.”
The imported sugar shall also be segregated as a separate pile for monitoring of the SRA, it said.
All warehouses storing the imported sugar were also directed to maintain a ledger that shall record, among others, the dates of delivery of the imported sugar to the SRA-registered warehouse and the dates and volume of withdrawal of the reclassified sugar from the same warehouse.
Non-compliance to the warehousing rules shall be subject to fines, the SRA said.
Aside from President Marcos Jr,, who is also serving as concurrent Agriculture Secretary, those who signed the Sugar Order No. 2 are Senior Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, Acting SRA Administrator David John Thaddeus Alba, Acting Board Member and Millers’ representative Ma. Mitzi Mangwag, and Acting Board member and planters’ representative Pablo Luis Azcona.
(Eagle News Service)
