As we reported last night, a press release coming out of the Cabinet was hinting that a sugar price increase was near. The release stated that they, quote, "approved the establishment of regulated prices and the removal of price control for retail labelled packaged sugar." End quote.
The release was vague about what exactly that means, but today, Minister of Agriculture, Jose Mai, explained that the wholesale price will remain controlled, but packaged sugar won't. Here's how he put it.
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"The wholesale price, the industrial price is one, that has a price control, you are not to go above a certain amount. The packaged sugar, so somebody can buy a thousand pounds and package it in their own customized pack and put that on the market."
"That has no control price because packaging has a cost and you have to compete. So people are ready to package right now and to add value. People are tired of buying sugar in a tie up bag, put it on a shelf and you don't even know if it has the weight that it should have."
"And so we are moving away from that. But the industrial has a price control, you just can't just increase as the sky is the limit. That's not objective, right? And so that was passed in Cabinet. I wasn't in Cabinet Tuesday, but that was passed in Cabinet."
Reporter
"So this means that whoever decides to package the sugar produced by BSI/ASR will be able to put their own price to it per pound of sugar?"
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"That's correct."
Reporter
"As is the case of BMDC, who has a pilot project and is selling in San Pedro."
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"Yes, that's correct."
