Pangilinan calls for reforms in local sugar industry

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan on Saturday emphasized the need for reforms to strengthen the multi-billion-peso sugar industry.

On Friday, Pangilinan held a public consultation with sugar planters in Talisay City, Negros Occidental, to find solutions to stabilize prices and incomes and fix recurring structural bottlenecks such as capacity, investment, and governance, as well as implement a sugar industry roadmap.

He warned that inadequate government support, rising production costs, and declining farmgate prices could potentially bring the industry down to its knees.

“This public consultation matters because real reform cannot be designed from Congress alone. I personally commit to translating your inputs into legislative and budgetary action,” said Pangilinan, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform.

“In return, we ask for concrete proposals on possible price floors, program design, the Sugarcane Industry Development Act (SIDA) priorities, and meaningful reforms at the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA). Let us be frank and practical and help one another so that the sugar industry can once again be a source of stability, not uncertainty, for Negros and the nation,” he added.

According to the SRA, the number of operating raw sugar mills dropped from 28 in 2018 to 25 in 2025, while sugar refineries declined from 13 to 10 over the same period, with only 5 refineries capable of producing premium-grade refined sugar.

Sugar farmgate prices are lower than the price of production, at only P2,150 to P2,300 per bag, compared to the production cost of P2,500 per 50-kilogram bag.

An importation ban has been placed until December 2026 to favor domestically produced sugar and stabilize the market. 

Last week, the Department of Agriculture (DA) approved the plan of the SRA to export 100,000 metric tons of raw sugar to the United States. This initiative is part of their efforts to safeguard the income of local raw sugar producers. —VBL, GMA Integrated News