Farmers mull sugar price hike due to Paeng

Sugar farmers are planning to raise the suggested retail price of sugar to around P85 to P90 per kilogram from the current P70 per kilo to recover from the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Paeng.

In a press statement over the weekend, the Unifed Federation of Sugar Producers wants President Bongbong Marcos' approval on the planned price hike of the commodity.

"Our sugar farmers need help to recover from the damage caused by the recent typhoon that has inundated hundreds of sugar farms from north to south and the rest of the Visayas," UNIFED President Manuel Lamata said.

Lamata also noted that he is confident that the President, as the head of the Department of Agriculture, will understand the situation as the typhoon has not only cost us lives but millions, perhaps billions of damage to our agriculture industry.

Aside from this, the group is also eyeing millgate prices to increase by P60 from the current price, which ranges from P2,900/Kg to "hopefully stabilize at P3,000 per bag."

Before the typhoon, Lamata said millgate prices were already going down but seeing the damage it wrought, the industry would need immediate assistance to bring up the retail SRP until our farmers will be able to recover.

While sugar prices have gone down, Lamata reiterated that fertilizers and fuel prices are still on the rise, and compounded with the typhoon's damage, our sugar farmers will have a hard time surviving this time.

The damage and losses incurred by the agriculture sector following the onslaught of Paeng have reached to P285.28 million on Sunday afternoon.

Based on the ongoing assessment of the Department of Agriculture, 8,608 farmers were affected and  13,408 hectares of farmlands with a combined volume of production loss of 11,761 metric tons were devastated by the typhoon.