THE sugar milling company has decried the raid that the Bureau of Customs and Sugar Regulatory Administration did on their warehouse in Bukidnon for allegedly hoarding sugar on Tuesday.
Javier Sagarbarria, Crystal Sugar Company resident manager, denied their company was hoarding sugar as the customs agents have alleged.
Sagarbarria said Crystal Sugar Company operates a mill site in Maramag town, one of the two sugar milling plants in Bukidnon.
He said the company mills around two million sacks of sugar every year from the sugar cane planted by the farmers in Bukidnon.
“We are a milling company, not a marketing firm. Naturally, we produce millions of sacks a year,” Sagarbarria said.
He said the total production of sugar is divided by the farmer/planters (66 percent) and the company (34 percent).
Sagarbarria said when the customs agents came on Tuesday they have in storage 466,142 sacks of sugar of which 264,000 sacks are owned by the farmers or planters.
“We do not have control as to whom the farmers would like to sell their sugar. We only control what is our share,” he said.
Sagarbarria said all shipments of sugar are strictly monitored by Sugar Regulatory Administration who posted representatives outside their warehouses — a practice common to all sugar milling plants in the country.
“A single infraction can close our company forever. We can not take that risk,” he said.
Sagarbarria decried the bad publicity brought by the Bureau of Customs to their company which has operated for more than 30 years in Bukidnon.
On Tuesday, the Bureau of Customs and Sugar Regulatory Administration raided several warehouses owned by Crystal Sugar Company in Bukidnon which they said was allegedly hoarding stocks of sugar.
The raid led by custom agents on three warehouses in North Poblacion, Maramag town netted 466,142 sacks of sugar allegedly hoarded by the sugar company.
Bureau of Customs authorities in Cagayan de Oro did not give further details of the alleged raid except for the short statement they released yesterday which they erroneously placed the location of the warehouse in Cagayan de Oro City.
Simultaneous raids were conducted on warehouses suspected to have hoarded sugar in Manila, Pangasinan, Pampanga, Batangas, and Davao.
Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said the raids and inspections of warehouses are part of the campaign by the Marcos administration to bring down sugar prices.
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