High global sugar prices are actually pushing local prices up but there should really be no basis for plunging into unbridled imports.

A sugar trader insisted growers were particularly averse to the decision of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to import duty-free sugar from Thailand in the wake of the purported slash in output.

Two weeks ago, officials of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said there was no need to panic since milling plants are operating and producing the commodity for the market.

However, the plea for sobriety made by SRA chief Rafael Coscoluella and sugar growers was not heeded and the DA announced the importation of 150,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar to bridge the supposed gap between demand and supply.

An association of sugar growers stressed there was enough sugar for the market and demanded that the DA examine the supply situation first before importing sugar.

A former DA official said "these importations are clearly political since the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) should have released part of the 150,000 metric tons (MT) of the buffer stock."

Coscoluella offered to release part of the reserve sugar to contain the price increase even before the DA opted for importations.

The former DA official explained that importing up to 150,000 MT of duty-free sugar when the world market price is high “is the perfect guarantee that some market players are out to make a killing and that prices would, indeed, rise to correspond to the purchase price of the commodity."

The Confederation of Sugar Producers' Associations (Confed) said last month that there was no need to import sugar, with Confed president Federico Locsin III stressing that milling was at its peak and importing sugar would not be in the interest of the country.

Fully half of the demand is accounted for by industrial users, 38 percent by households and 12 percent by institutional buyers.