By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD CITY — Negros Occidental 5th District Representative Dino Yulo remains hopeful that sugar farming will remain profitable for farmers despite rising production costs due to the prolonged dry spell.
Yulo made the statement ahead of the upcoming milling season, which he hopes will “bring in better prices for our sugar farmers.”
“We have many farms that had to double their use of fertilizer and other inputs to counter the effects of El Niño, resulting in significantly higher production costs,” Yulo said.
He noted that in the previous crop year, farmers experienced low mill gate prices during most of the milling weeks. For this crop year, they also had to contend with high production costs.
Hinigaran Mayor Nadie Arceo echoed Yulo’s concerns, stating that production costs have risen by at least 20 percent.
“Farmers had to replant, and the price of cane points has doubled because of the dry spell,” Arceo said.
Arceo, who also serves as president of Unifarms Inc., a sugar association with more than 3,000 members, 90 percent of whom are small or marginalized farmers, said, “We are looking forward to a good start this milling season to at least recover our costs and hopefully earn a small profit.”
Yulo emphasized that the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) plays a crucial role in managing supply and demand to ensure reasonable returns for farmers.
“The industry is already losing sugarcane land to real estate and other development projects. If we want to increase the area dedicated to sugar and ensure sustainability, we need to make sugar farming profitable, especially for small farmers who make up a large portion of our producers,” Yulo added.
