I have packs and packs of muscovado sugar in my kitchen. Some of them have been there for months! I buy them in the grocery store on moments I feel like “going organic” or “going green”. But I forget to use them or fail to tell the maids to use them. The distinct flavor that comes with the brown sweetness takes some getting used to, I guess.
But when I talked to muscovado sugar farmers at the Good News Kapihan yesterday, I realized that with all the chemicals used in making sugar come in white granules, we could be slowly putting in toxins in our body or killing the environment with pesticides. (Here’s an excerpt but you can read my entire article here.)
A lot of people use “sweetness” to get their way. For muscovado farmers Reynic S. Alo of Negros province and Cornelio E. Castañeda Jr. of Sultan Kudarat, it brought in money, a business that is not only good for the environment but also helps poor farmers in the countryside.
At the Good News Kapihan Wednesday, a monthly forum organized by Good News Pilipinas, Jerry E. Pacturan, executive director of Philippine Development Assistance Programme, Inc. and Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said first movers in muscovado farming are getting the windfall from rising demand for the organic brown sugar in Japan and Europe.
Muscovado is brown, moist sugar that’s commonly associated with gourmet coffee. But it is also used commercially to make banana chips, candies, chocolates and other sweetened products. Filipinos in Mindanao and Visayas are also using it instead of “vetsin” or monosodium glutamate, and also for marinating meat and fish, cooking tuna, baking organic bread and making chocolate, among others.
It’s more expensive than white granulated sugar at P60 to P70 per kilo, but the price does not deter consumers who are starting to get conscious in using consumer goods that do not need harmful chemicals in the production process.
“If you knew how white sugar is made, you will never use it. It has a lot of chemicals,” Reynic S. Alo, an exporter of muscovado cubes, said.
Muscovado and white sugar are both made from sugarcane; the only difference is the production process. If it’s organically produced and cooked without chemicals, it’s the kind that more and more world markets want because people are now more health and environment conscious.
Alo started producing muscovado sugar with a P50,000 seed money, but is now exporting to Japan and growing his business. Farmgate prices in Negros are at P38 to P44 per kilo and P25 per kilo in Antique province. In Metro Manila, retail prices are at P70. Alo sells to a Japanese middleman at P54 per kilo, but in bulk. In Europe, it is sold for P248 per kilo.
Some revealing figures:
12 – months is the time of gestation for sugarcane, which grows anywhere in the country and is called the “laziest” crop because you essentially forget about it until harvest time.
200 – million pesos is up for grabs for muscovado farmers under the government’s wholesale credit facility for organic farming (applications should be sent to the Development Bank of the Philippines)
8 – percent per annum is the interest rate for this wholesale facility, meaning the funds will be lent to micro-finance institutions who wish to relend to organic farmers or cooperatives who want to set up mills to service a community of muscovado farmers
200 – million, another fund assistance for organic farmers under the Department of Agriculture
0.07 – percent is the share of muscovado to the total agriculture exports of the Philippines
5 – percent, the rate by which the muscovado industry has been growing for the last five to six years
1,000 – euro, the cost now of getting an organic certification (around P65,000). That’s just more or less the cost of flying in an expert, if the certification is done the traditional way.
1.8 – million pesos is the cost of a good food-grade mill needed to service 100 to 500 hectares of sugarcane.
Important names and numbers to remember:
Bernadette Romulo-Puyat
Undersecretary of Department of Agriculture
DA Compound
Elliptical Road, Diliman
Quezon City, Philippines
Tel: (632) 920-1750
*Puyat is setting up a one-stop export shop that will help farmers prepare their products for export
Jerry E. Pacturan
Executive Director
Philippine Development Assistance Programme, Inc.
#78-B Dr. Lazcano St., Brgy. Laging Handa Quezon City, Philippines
www.pdap.net
June 24th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Hi,
To anyone interested in buying muscovado sugar, please contact me,
David Lopez
ndavidlopez@hotmail.com
January 7th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
con de venecia,
We are interested to buy your muscovado sugar. How can I contact you?
January 7th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Con de venecia,
We are interested to buy your muscovado sugar. Can you provide us with 10 m.t. per month?
December 20th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
joey, after the press conference, i wanted to have a sugarcane farm too! haha. i suggest you look up the PDAP website (link in post above). they organize farmer groups so it will be a good idea to network with them. you can get all sorts of practical information if you hook up with experienced farmers. im sure they are also in palawan, because sugarcane grows everywhere, they said. good luck!
December 20th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
valdelgondo, during the press conference, the muscovado farmer i talked to said sugarcane is a lazy crop — meaning you plant it and go to sleep. after nine months, you harvest. it basically grows by itself. i’m sure there are pests to watch out for, but when i went to bacolod more than a year ago, i hardly saw farmers watching over their fields! preparing the sugarcane for its transformation into muscovado also didn’t sound very complicated. they juice the sugarcane and cook the juice to turn them into sugar. i suggest you look at the PDAP website (link in the post above) for more information. regards.