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The Sugar Regulatory Administration raised the import clearance fee for high fructose corn syrup by 1,900% to curb the use of artificial sweeteners
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The fee was raised from P1.50 per unit volume equivalent to 50 kilograms of sugar to P30
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The move is also seen to help protect the local sugar industry due to the influx of artificial sweeteners
The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) recently raised the import clearance fee for high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) by 1,900% to curb the use of artificial sweeteners and help protect the local industry hurting from the influx of artificial sweeteners.
The fee was raised from P1.50 per unit volume equivalent to 50 kilograms of sugar to P30. SRA administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said the increase was unanimously approved by the SRA Board last month.
HFCS is used in processed foods and beverages as an alternative to table sugar or sucrose.
The sugar industry refers to artificial sweeteners as “other sugars.”
HFCS is made when corn starch is broken down into individual molecules, producing corn syrup. This is pure glucose. Enzymes are then added to the syrup to convert some of the glucose into fructose, a sugar that naturally occurs in fruits.
The United Sugar Producers Federation of the Phils. (Unifed) gave the fee hike its thumbs up. Unifed had been one of the groups that pushed for the higher fees to benefit the local sugar industry.
Unifed president Manuel Lamata said: “It’s been a long time coming. This will encourage them to buy local and not use cancer-causing sweeteners.”
Industry groups had raised their concerns with Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. “about the influx of artificial sweeteners into the country.”
Also, the Sugar Council along with the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines wrote Tiu Laurel raising their concerns on the flood of artificial sweeteners entering the country.
The said artificial sweeteners “could cause the widespread displacement if sugar farmers and sugar farm workers.”
The SRA had originally charged HFCS importers P30/bag back in 2017. But this fee was cut to P1.50/bag almost immediately thereafter. The lower fee was seen to partly cause demand for local sugar to stagnate in the past few years.
Azcona said another order is being drafted based on the August 6 meeting between Laurel and other sugar stakeholders, millers, refiners, farmers, where UNIFED raised the alarm on the entry of “other sugars” or Tariff Code HS1702.
“This entails requiring importers of items under HS1702 to secure an import clearance from SRA and this has been under board discussion since August,” Azcona said.
SRA data shows demand for raw sugar was at 1.81 million metric tons as of Aug. 25, an increase of 3.99% from the 1.74 MT in the same period last year.
