Sugar Regulatory Administrator Rafael Coscolluela yesterday said a new sugar allocation order will be issued soon to address the rising retail prices of sugar and the tight domestic supply.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in her speech before the regional workshop on the Establishment of National Human Rights Institutions in Asia in Manila yesterday, said she has ordered the departments of Trade and Industry and Agriculture to devise measures to moderate the prices of flour and sugar.

She said this should be done in consultation with industry and retail associations, producers, distributors and retailers.

Coscolluela said Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has also expressed concern over the rising retail prices of sugar.

Refined sugar that was at P32 to P36 a kilo at the start of the milling season in September has gone up to P40 over the last several days and in some areas to P42, while the prevailing price for brown sugar is P34 per kilo or an increase of about P4, Coscolluela said.

Given the unusual circumstances we have to make adjustments, including setting new sugar allocations, Coscolluela said.

Sugar Order No. 1 had set the "A" or U.S. Quota Sugar at 7 percent, "B" or Domestic Sugar at 80 percent, "C" or Reserve Sugar at 5 percent and "D" or World Market at 8 percent.

Under the new sugar order set to be issued "A" will be at 6 percent, "B" at 89 percent, "C" will be 0 for now and "D" will be 5 percent, he said.

We are hoping that with this move more sugar will be available for the retail market and the retail prices will either hold for now or begin to drop, he said.

Unusually wet weather has slowed down delivery of cane to the sugar mills and also resulted in low purity, he said.

As of Oct. 7 actual sugar production compared to the same period last year was down 36 percent, he said. Actual production last year was 1,630,774 bags of sugar compared to 1,035,959 this year, he said.

The tight supply has brought up the buying price of raw sugar to P1,342 per Lkg, he said.

We think with the normalization of milling after the rains, prices will go down to more reasonable levels, he said.

But Coscolluela also noted that the demand for domestic sugar also goes up in the first week of November and Christmas, plus there is the demand of food processors who need to meet their purchase orders before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Coscolluela said a meeting is set this week to discuss the details of a Memorandum of Agreement and the budget for the Anti Sugar Smuggling Task Force.*CPG

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