Sugar mill gets BoI approval

THE BOARD of Investments (BoI) on Thursday said it has approved HDJ Bayawan Agri-venture Corp.’s (HBAC) P490-million sugar mill in Bayawan City, Negros Oriental.

In a statement on Thursday, the BoI said the sugar plant qualified under the manufacturing activities agro-processing category of the 2017 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP), entitling the project to various incentives.

Located on a five-hectare areas in Barangay Bugay in Bayawan City, the sugar mill began commercial operations this month. It currently employs 151 personnel.

HBAC’s facility is set to produce 427,050 50- kilogram bags of raw sugar annually, and 7,665 metric tons per year of molasses, a by-product.

Trade Undersecretary and BoI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo said the new plant will address the needs of small sugarcane farmers in the area, as well as agrarian reform beneficiaries.

“The establishment of the new sugar mill plant will dramatically reduce the cost of transporting sugarcane among farmers within the area by as much as P600 per ton. Farmers will now have greater flexibility on where to send their sugarcanes for milling,” he was quoted as saying in a statement.

Small sugarcane farmers in the area previously had to go to milling facilities in Sta. Catalina, Bai City and Kabankalan City, which are 50 kilometers away. The BoI said the cost of transporting sugarcane to these sites was estimated at P650 per ton.