Current Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) manager Rodrigo Tapay, in his lecture at Aboy's restaurant during our field trip, graciously shared the following points of interest about the Philippine sugar industry:
● It is a 150 billion investment dominant in 17 countries and 8 regions.
● As the dominant temporary crop of Negros Occidental, it recently yielded a 57.49% Negros Occidental production for the crop year (September-August) 2007.
● There are 556,000 farmers and 25,000 sugar workers employed in agriculture.
● Filipinos consume 150,000 tons of raw sugar a month.
● Phil. Beverage industry accounts for 30% of national sugar consumption.
● Until 2006, the Philippines is a net importer of sugar because foreign sugar is imported at lower prices (5 cents per pound below the cost of production).
● The problems associated with local sugar consumption (e.g. Smuggling, high cost of production, etc.) can be attributed to low sugar tariffs, absence of protection of planters against world “dump market”, and antiquated machineries and marketing strategies.
History
Sugar cane as a delicate plant always needs fertilizer, irrigation, and a workforce willing to work long hours of backbreaking labor. Before its export potential was recognized by British businessman Nicholas Loney, sugar was a minor commodity used primarily as spice.
By 1860s Negros Occidental was the leading sugar producing province in the Philippines and well on its way to becoming what is now known as the country's sugar bowl. By early 1900s the Philippine sugar industry was well established with America as the number one importer of sugar.
The 1950s saw the heydey of the Philippine sugar industry, with rich barons living life in overt luxury barely paying attention to the flaws in the sugar system: extremely inequitable land distribution inherent in a sharecropping system. While some sugar magnate invested in other businesses and succeeded, other sugar tycoons who decided to stick to the industry suffered the consequences when the US developed a High Fructose Corn Syrup through biotechnology and reduced quota for sugar cane in the 1960s.
Since then the Philippines was forced to sell sugar in the world market, regarded as the “dump market” for highly subsidized sugar (for which were therefore cheaper compared to that of the Philippines.
The world price sank from more than 60 cents per pound in 1974 to 40 cents in 1980. And by 1985, it fluctuated to a lowly 3 cents in 1985 causing 85% of Negros population to live below poverty line.
Research Points
● By 2004, a possible collapse of the sugar industry by 2010 is feared when all tariffs on imports of agricultural produce including sugar are removed.
● The government does not also have a comprehensive program to support the sugar industry.
● Smuggling of sugar by big people in the industry and government (ex. Kraft Foods Philippines is one of the threats to the country's declining sugar industry.
● Most often small sugar land owners associations are not consulted on matters that concern the industry. Industry leaders seem only concerned with their own interests and survival, unmindful of small sugar landowners who need more support than them.
● Representatives of these associations expressed their need of leaders who care for the welfare of the entire industry and the people not just their own interests.
● Reports further stipulated that the government should convene an assembly of more than 150 sugar associations nationwide, from small to big ones, to ensure a truly broad and democratic consultation among all the stakeholders in the industry.
● Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) is said to continue to impose a levy of Php2 per kilogram of sugar produce, which can be unfavorable for small-time farmers.
● Ethanol as alternative fuel may be the key to the sugar industry's redemption. Demand for sugar will increase but instead of producing raw sugar as finished product, the sugar industry will be geared towards processing sugar directly through ethanol fuel.
● In 2006, the Manila Times columnist Ma. Isabel Ongpin commended the Philippine Sugar Research Institute (Philsurin) for reestablishing competence in the sugar industry by analyzing the causes of low productivity and investing in advanced equipment, biotechnology and intensive research and development thereby generating impressive results.
History
Rice has come a long way to becoming the staple food of not only Filipinos but also our Asian neighbors. Since its cultivation in China and India more than 4,000 years ago, it was estimated that more than half the world's population subsists wholly or partially on rice contributing to a total annual world production of more than half a billion metric tons.
Modern culture makes use of irrigation, and a few varieties of rice may be grown with only a moderate supply of water.
In the Philippines, plant breeders at the International Rice Research Institute attempt to keep pace with demand from a burgeoning world population and repeatedly develop improved varieties of “miracle rice” that allow farmers to substantially increase crop yields.
Research Points
● In the effort of promoting biotechnology, new rice varieties are seriously propagated to increase self-sufficiency as well as minimize the cost of production.
● A variety known as “Golden Rice” which became available in 2001 was believed and regarded as a solution to the chronic malnutrition problem in the country.
● One of the areas improved as regards rice cultivation is the development of hybrid rice resistant to bacterial leaf blight (BB), a major plant disease reportedly causing the over-all rice income to lose Php 271 million a year.
● This year, the Philippines started using the hybrid seeds from China which are said to yield 20% more rice than the other hybrid ones.
● As regards rice importation from Vietnam and Thailand, a state of national rice self-sufficiency mandates that the country cannot export rice if it doesn't produce enough rice to sustain the entire population's demand. Apparently, the Philippines lag behind its Asian counterparts in terms of rice production.
● The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) may be beneficial to some extent but it somehow failed because the government didn't provide poor farmers with access to capital and subsidies to make their lands productive.
● Centralized procurement and sale fertilizers could save sugar producers by earning a lot. Apparently, government agencies are still buying fertilizers from local private traders which normally charge higher prices.
● Possibly due to the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) reported urging on the Philippine government executives, the agriculture sector's budget is proposed to be increased to Php21.7 billion in 2008 from the current Php18.9 billion.
● The sector eyes biotechnology as a means of raising farmer's income and knowledge in agriculture, and spur economic growth in the countryside.
● While boosting production, research and development intensifies in various projects including: propagation of rice variety, genetically improved coconut, papaya, and abaca, disease-resistant seaweed, pest prevention, massive cultivation of malunggay, papaya, and other fruits and vegetables with active ingredients sought by pharmaceutical companies that are into nature-based products.
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