Sugar leader Luis Mirasol Jr. yesterday asked Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco to direct the holding of a public hearing on the sugar allocations of the Sugar Regulatory Administration.

Executive Order No. 18 directs the SRA to allocate and balance supply and demand to levels and prices that are profitable to the producers and fair to the consumer, he said.

It has been the practice of the SRA to consult the Philippine Sugar Alliance composed of the four federations and trader-millers in determining the different sugar allocations. This is prejudicial to the 24 percent non-affiliated sugar producers and the 18 percent non-affiliated millers, he said.

Mirasol also said the existence of smuggled sugar and the possibility that these are being credited to the production of certain sugar mills, especially in Mindanao, should be investigated by SRA immediately.

“The leakage of D (word market) sugar and the intrusion of smuggled sugar into the domestic market has resulted to very low farmgate sugar prices,” he said.*CPG

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