04:06So, yun pa po yung tinatrabaho natin at the moment.
04:08So, eventually, we will know talaga the reason po.
04:11Sa inyo pong assessment, Sir, ano naman pong naging reaksyon ng mga sugar stakeholders
04:16sa increase ng import clearance na ito, lalo na po sa Luzon at sa Mindanao?
04:22Of course, the farmers and the millers are all happy.
04:25Kasi po, if you notice, for the last five years or so,
04:30yung demand natin for sugar hindi umaakyat,
04:33which is unexplainable kasi po dumadami yung tao sa Pilipinas,
04:38dumadami yung consumers, but the demand does not increase.
04:42So, we are looking for the reason why it's not increasing.
04:45Ano ba yung nagsasubstitute po sa asukal?
04:49So, yun po yung trabaho namin.
04:51And of course, tuwang-tuwa po yung farmers and millers kasi government is helping them.
04:56Sir Pablo, pwera pa po dun sa mga nabanggit nyo na,
05:00ano pa po ba yung mga ibang magiging implications
05:03nitong rate increase sa paggamit ng artificial sweeteners at sugar industry sa bansa?
05:10Okay, yung 30 pesos po kasi na import clearance, this goes in the corporate fund of the SRA.
05:16And the SRA corporate fund comes from all these fees and liens,
05:22and dito po kinukuha yung lahat natin budget for all the tulong na binibigay natin sa farmers natin.
05:30We're hard at work with coming up with new and more productive sugarcane varieties.
05:36Locally produced po yan.
05:38We breed our own sugarcane varieties we don't import.
05:41We're also hard on improving the mechanization part of the industry.
05:47Bumagal kasi yung improvement natin or modernization.
05:51Nung lumiit yung farm sizes because of land reform.
05:54So if you are a sugar farmer and you are only 1 hectare or 2 hectares,
06:00ang problema po sa sugar, once a year lang po yung harvest.
06:03So probably a sugar farmer will earn about 4,000, 4,500 pesos a month.
06:10Yun lang po.
06:11So if you have a family of four, how can you afford to buy a tractor and modernize?
06:16Tapos hindi naman po efficient yung mga traktora sa ganung kamaliit na farm size.
06:22So all of the effort ng SRA ngayon, kukonsolidate natin sila,
06:27i-organize natin sila into co-ops, into associations, so they can be 30 hectares.
06:32Namimigay po tayo ng mga traktora, namimigay po tayo ng equipment.
06:37So yung pera na makukuha natin dito sa mga clearance, mas dadami po yung pwede natin itulong sa farmers natin.
06:45Kumusta naman po yung ganun, yung pagkakakonsolidate ninyo sa mga farmers na ito,
06:49pumapayag naman sila, wala na mga resistance,
06:52and ilan na po yung nanganag-consolidate or nag-turn into cooperatives?
06:57Yeah, so far we've consolidated about 260 black farms, tawag natin.
07:02So this amounts to about 10,600 hectares na po, and it involves 7,700 farmers, more or less.
07:11So when they become a black farm, they get about 5 million pesos of assistance.
07:18So meron silang, half of that is pera pang puhunan, startup capital, half of that is equipment.
07:26So masaya naman po.
07:28And then because of it, yung production po nila nag-increase ng 5 to 10 tons per hectare.
07:35So malaking increase po. It's a good 10 to 20 percent increase in production po.
07:41So from 4,400 a month, magkano na po ang kinikita nila pag ganyan?
07:46Yung nakita ako sa report kahapon, yung usual nilang kita a year is about 58,000 dati.
07:53So ngayon, umakyat sa mga 150 to 175,000 per hectare.
07:58So it's about threefold. So they earn maybe almost 12 to 15,000 a month na po.
08:04At least, no?
08:05As a group.
08:06As a group.
08:07Yes.
08:08Okay. 12 to 15,000 a month per farmer.
08:11Per member pa rin po.
08:12Yes, of course, as a group.
08:13Okay. So sir, paano po na-affectuhan yung demand ng domestic sugar sa importation ng high fructose corn syrup sa bansa?
08:21Way back 2016, malaki po yung effect.
08:24And then because pumasok yung train law, where high fructose corn syrup sweetened products were taxed double compared to sugar, bumaba po yung HFCS demand.
08:39So nag-improve ulit yung demand natin sa sugar po.
08:42If left uncontrolled, malaki po yung effect nito sa production natin.
08:47Sa demand po, sorry.
08:49Okay. Sir, yung explain lang po natin sa mga kababayan.
08:53Kasi baka iniisip ko pag ako unang sinabi alternative sugar, ito ba yung mga sugar-free.
08:58Iba kasi itong high fructose corn syrup. It's actually very bad for you.
09:03Yes. Okay. Yung other sugars na sinasabi, it's one group.
09:10Basically, those are chemically similar to sugar but in some other form.
09:17So that's HFCS, glucose.
09:19How does it look like?
09:20Yung HFCS is a syrup. Some of it is in powder form.
09:24Iba naman po yung totally yung tinatawag natin artificial sweetener.
09:29So yun yung aspartame, sukralose, and dun din sumasama yung mga organic like stevia.
09:38So those are totally non-sugars.
09:40So iba naman silang kategori.
09:42Pero mas marami po yung gumagamit nang similar to sugar but na mimislabel siya as an alternative.
09:48So like high fructose corn syrup is actually, sinasabi nila, it causes obesity.
09:54And it's still glucose. No, it's fructose, sorry.
09:58Then ang dami din gumagamit ng glucose kasi si sugar is sukralose.
10:02So it's a technicality that we're working on para mapaalam din natin sa mga mamamayan natin
10:10ito yung sinatawag talagang sugar substitute is hindi talaga sugar.
10:15Ito naman yung iba is just an other form of sugar.
10:19So other sugars yung tawag sa kanila.
10:21So nilalagay kasi namin yun sa pancake minsan ng mga anak mo.
10:24Pero sinabihan kami ng doktor na huwag yung corn syrup because masama nga.
