The Philippine sugar industry delegation to Washington has assured the continued supply of sugar to the United States in the coming years and support for the US Farm bill, Sugar Regulatory Administrator Ma. Regina Bautista Martin said yesterday.

“We confirmed our appreciation for the US (sugar) Quota especially as our country prepares for 2015 when imported sugar will have 5 percent tariff. An assured market is necessary for our continuous growth and development of the sugar industry beyond 2015," Martin said.

She said the Philippine delegation met with officials of the United States Department of Agriculture, United States Trade Relations, and the American Sugar Alliance.

Aside from Martin, the delegation includes PSMA executive vice president Francisco Varua, CONFED national president Aganon Jr., CONFED Negros Panay chairman Raymund Montinola, NFSP president Enrique Rojas and vice president Jaime Golez, Philippine Agriculture attaché Jocelyn Javelosa, and representative of Phil Sugar Industry to US Harry Koop.

“We gave support for the US farm bill which was passed at Senate level this week, and congress to follow," she said.

The USDA needed the assurance from the Philippines of our continued supply of sugar for the coming years, she added.

A letter, signed by the 17-member International Sugar Trade Coalition of which the Philippines is a member, said: “U.S. sugar policy…is important to sugar producers in developing nations because it provides a guaranteed level of access to the U.S. sugar market at fair, predictable prices.”

Sugar producers from the Philippines, an ISTC member, visited Capitol Hill the following week to meet with lawmakers in both the House and Senate and urge them to maintain support for sugar policy as the legislative process unfolds—a sentiment that was echoed in the ISTC letter, the Washington Post also reported.

“Attempts to weaken [sugar] policy through amendments on the Senate floor would not only harm U.S. farmers but also poor growers from developing countries where sugar is a key economic driver,” ISTC wrote.

Efforts by sugar policy critics to characterize the U.S. sugar market as being closed are erroneous, ISTC noted. “The United States is the world’s biggest importer of sugar, importing 3.7 million tons of sugar from 40 countries—38 of them developing countries—this year alone.”

In fact, sugar producers in developing nations fear that eliminating or weakening U.S. sugar policy would only benefit large food companies and agricultural superpowers like Brazil, while proving particularly punishing to the world’s poorest economies.

ISTC points to recent sugar policy changes in the European Union as proof. There was a direct correlation, ISTC explained, between the EU importing less sugar from developing nations and economic distress in countries where there are no agricultural alternatives to sugarcane.

There were other ramifications to EU policy changes, according to American Sugar Alliance policy analyst Jack Roney. “Because the EU harmed its developing country suppliers and cut its own domestic production, they’ve had supply shortages in recent years,” Roney said.

“Meanwhile, worldwide supply problems didn’t harm America because of our sugar policy.”

He said he believes ample sugar supplies in the Unites States, combined with affordable prices for grocery shoppers and the fact sugar policy operates at no cost to taxpayers, will lead to its continuation in the next Farm Bill.*CPG

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