The sugar industry is currently discussing proposals for a "win win" approach that will allow planters and millers to address the challenge of competition from world market sugar in 2015, Rafael Coscolluela, national president of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations, said yesterday.

The Sugar Alliance of the Philippines has agreed to activate working committees to work on appropriate studies and plans.

Sugar Regulatory Administration chief, Ma. Regina Bautista Martin, has stressed the need for sugar traders to prepare to be competitive with tariffs on imported sugar dropping from 28 percent this year to 18 percent in January next year, 10 percent in 2014 and 5 percent in 2015.

Amid initial apprehensions among cane farmers and associations regarding the move towards a "cane purchase" system, industry leaders have brought to the discussion table possible participation schemes that provide stakeholders with equitable opportunities to benefit from new investments in cane-based industry diversification, Coscolluela said.

There is still a lot of work to be done, including discussions between planters' associations and their mills regarding possible partnerships beyond 2015, he added.*CPG

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