Lawmaker: Sugar industry lost P7.28 billion due to over-importation

A lawmaker has called out the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) for allowing imported sugar to enter the country amid surplus stocks, saying the policy has resulted in P7.28 billion in losses for the sugar industry.

In a privilege speech on Wednesday, Negros Occidental Representative Javi Benitez said the SRA’s Sugar Order No. 8 authorized the importation of 424,000 metric tons of refined sugar, with arrivals scheduled between July and November 2025, way above the 50,000 metric tons recommended by the Negros Occidental sugar leaders.

“The surplus flooded the market at the worst possible time when our farmers were bringing their cane to mill. A stable farm gate price sits between P2,500 and P2,800 per 50 kilobags. By January 2026, millgate prices had collapsed to P2,000 to P2,200, a 38% drop from the previous season or well below the P2,500 cost of production,” Benitez said.

“Molasses [sugar] fell 56% from P17,000 to P7,500 per ton. Between October and December 2025, the industry lost P7.28 billion. If nothing changes, Mr. Speaker, losses will exceed P20 billion by June 2026. And all of this happened before the hearing was announced,” he added.

Benitez was referring to a screenshot of a Viber conservation of an SRA official, whom he did not identify, apparently blaming the House for conducting an inquiry into the lowering sugar prices.

“Commodity prices move on new information. The surplus that came out during the [House[ hearing was not new. Everyone in the industry already knew this. The data had been circulating for months. No trader changed course because of something they already understood,” Benitez said.

“Traders did not stop buying because of a congressional inquiry. They stopped buying because their warehouses were full. Millers were at maximum storage. You cannot force a buyer to take sugar he has no room for,” he added.

Likewise, the neophyte lawmaker argued that the recent brief recent increase in sugar prices was driven by export shipments to United States under the 2025 WTO Tariff Rate Quota.

“Once those shipments were done, reality came back. Some may point to price dips after our hearings, but a hearing did not cause a price dip. It can only expose instability that was already there,” Benitez said.

“The source of that instability has never been in question. The SRA's importation policies, specifically Sugar Order No. 8, put far more sugar into the market than the market can absorb,” he added.

In October 2025, the SRA imposed a moratorium on the importation of molasses sugar until the end of 2025 amid an observed decrease in the prices of the locally produced sugarcane byproduct.

By November 2025, the SRA and the Department of Agriculture (DA) extended this moratorium to March 2026.

In December 2025, the SRA and the DA said they are looking at extending the moratorium again, to the end of 2026.

Benitez said that such moratoriums prove that the SRA was implementing remedies over a problem it created, and that the House intervention in a form of inquiry is the appropriate response.

“The agency issued order that produced the very harm it was supposed to prevent. Together with the Committee on Agriculture and Food, we have asked the SRA, twice, for the complete list of traders who were allocated import volumes under Sugar Order 8. Twice asked, twice refused. If there's nothing to hide, why will they not give us the list?” he said.

“These hearings conducted in aid of legislation gave the DA the evidence needed to extend the sugar import ban through December 2026. The House did its job, examined the numbers, and the record it built is now the basis for corrective action. We will not let anyone shift the blame, muddle the discussion, or silence the institution that has the courage to ask the hard questions. We will keep fighting for our farmers until not a  single farmer is forced off their land by a market rigged against them,” Benitez added. — BM, GMA Integrated News@gmanews.tv>