PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has approved Sugar Order (SO) 2 that allows the importation of 150,000 metric tons of sugar.Under SO 2, the imported sugar shall arrive in the country not later than November 15, 2022.“As such, each participant shall be given one month from November 15, 2022 to completely distribute their allocations to respective clients for industrial use and/or direct consumption and submit to SRA within 30 calendar days thereafter written proof of compliance to the said actual distribution,” the order read.Half or 75,000 metric tons of imported sugar will be allocated to industrial users while the rest will be for consumers.Industrial users include food, confectionaries, biscuits, bread, candies, milk, juice, and beverage manufacturers that use refined sugar in the manufacture of their finished products for sale exclusively in the domestic products.Consumers, on the other hand, are wholesalers and traders engaged in selling sugar in bulk to retailers, as well as the general public.The importation aims to stabilize the supply of sugar in the country, which went down due to the damage caused by Typhoon Odette to sugarcane root crops in the Visayas region in 2021 that resulted in the soaring prices of sweetener.The order was signed by Marcos, Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, Acting Sugar Regulatory Authority (SRA) administrator David John Alba, Acting Board Member-Miller’s Representative Ma. Mitzi Mangwag and Acting Board Member-Planters Representative Pablo Luis Azcona.Marcos serves as the concurrent chairman of the SRA. (SunStar Philippines)