(PNA Bacolod file photo) BACOLOD CITY - The largest sugar bloc in Negros Island has warned groups that will participate in the importation under the Sugar Regulatory Administration's (SRA) Sugar Order (SO) No. 3 that the move will be considered "abetting an illegal act". The statement was issued on Friday by the more than 10,000-member Associacion de Agricultores de la Carlota y Pontevedra Inc. (AALCPI) based in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental, whose general manager David Alba is an intervenor in a case that secured preliminary injunctions against SO 3. "Let this serve as a warning to all traders and importers who will join this mockery. We will petition that all imported sugar brought in under this order will be declared as smuggled sugar," Alba said. On May 2, SRA chief Hermegenildo Serafica released Memorandum Circular 11, stating that SRA is now processing applications from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao traders, except Western Visayas, to import 200,000 me
IMPORT ORDER. A copy of Memorandum Circular 11 dated May 2, 2022 issued by Sugar Regulatory Administration chief Hermenegildo Serafica and a copy of which was obtained by the United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED). The directive states that SRA is now processing applications from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao traders, except Western Visayas, to import 200,000 metric tons of standard grade refined sugar and bottler's grade refined sugar.(Image courtesy of UNIFED) BACOLOD CITY - The country's biggest sugar producers group with more than 30,000 member-planters has called out the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) for proceeding with the importation of refined sugar even with a pending case against such action. In a statement on Thursday, United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) president Manuel Lamata, who is based in Negros Occidental, said they will ask the courts to cite Agriculture Secretary William Dar and SRA Administrator Herme