Baker Bobbie Madrono said customers are buying fewer breads and pastries, even though the shop has not raised prices. - ST
MANILA (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Streetside bakeries and small retailers are feeling the brunt of a sugar crisis in the Philippines, as the government moves to import more supplies to address the domestic shortage.
Bobbie Madrono, a baker working in a shop located at a busy intersection in Quezon City, Metro Manila, said customers are buying fewer breads and pastries these days, even though the shop has not raised prices despite sugar becoming more expensive.
His bakery used to earn 5,000 pesos (RM400) a day. But now, they consider themselves lucky if they reach 3,500 pesos.
The price of refined sugar is still at around 100 pesos per kg. This is despite an order from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who is also agriculture secretary, for supermarkets to lower the price to 70 pesos.
Madrono said his bakery decided to absorb the price increase, unlike others which have raised the price of their breads while selling smaller sizes.
"We're barely earning anything right now, but we can't close down our bakery. That's how it is. You have to fight," Madrono said. "Profits may be low today, but maybe we'll do better tomorrow."
The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) has estimated that local sugar production will reach only 1.8 million metric tonnes this year, short of the annual demand of 2.03 million metric tonnes.
It said production has dipped because of unfavourable weather conditions and the "residual effects" of super typhoon Rai, which flattened swathes of farmland and caused more than 3 billion pesos worth of agricultural damage in December last year.
The price of sugar has gone up by about 43 per cent since June in the Philippines, which is also struggling with high inflation - recorded at 6.4 per cent in July.
President Marcos has green-lit the import of 150,000 metric tonnes of sugar to address the shortfall in local supplies.
In Alfonso town in Cavite province, Mina Gazmen buys washed sugar from a big retailer in Naic town and delivers it to sundry stores around Alfonso.
Gazmen said a 50kg sack of sugar cost 1,950 pesos in 2020. Now, she is paying 3,000 pesos per sack. That has forced her to raise prices to her own customers.
"We need to do what we have to do so our business will survive. Some of our customers try to haggle, but they understand when we explain the price hike," she said.
Big companies have also been hit hard. The country's top soft drink makers, Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola and ARC Refreshments, released a rare statement on Aug 16, saying the industry is facing a shortage of premium refined sugar.
Coca-Cola has suspended operations at several plants, saying it would do its best not to cut jobs and raise prices amid the sugar shortage.
The authorities conducted an inspection of warehouses and found thousands of sacks of sugar being kept in storage facilities in some provinces, leading the Palace to describe the shortage as "artificial".
Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said sugar traders were allegedly hoarding supplies to take advantage of the price hike.
Madrono is angry about the claim of sugar hoarding, but he thinks the shortage is real.
"I feel so powerless. We can't do much because we're just consumers," he said. "When those in power want to keep on taking advantage of us, they will. Life's unfair and we are the ones who will suffer."
