SHORT ON LIFE

August 28, 2022 Opinion

There shortages looming which promise to cripple whatever hopes of growth we have. The impending sugar shortage whether staged or natural has had soda companies complaining of difficulty sourcing out the commodity. So say goodbye to your favorite soda, not that this is a bad thing, it being pointed as the cause of obesity, it might be our silver lining.

The basic commodity’s presumed scarceness has caused a panic for the business sector, rippling to lowly consumers of the sweetener, who has resorted to hoarding and scrimping on it use. The Sugar Regulatory Administration show raw sugar production for 2022 was projected at 2.1 million metric tons but the country failed to meet the target due to climate emergencies which damaged crops coupled with escalating fertilizer costs, contributed to the dwindling of yield to project a measly 1.7 million MT.

The bakeries are in an uproar over the price increase of sugar, which is essential in production requirements. This endangers Pinoy pandesal even more, considering its size has reduced through the years, it will not surprise me if we end up eating puny circles of dough in the long run. Added to the list of shortages are whispers, there is also a rising salt shortage.

Given that pronouncements point to a neglect of the salt production sector which will affect coconut production, since common salt serves as its fertilizer. So it’s a double whammy, goodbye to the Egyptian’s discovery and mankind’s basic cooking essential, giving flavor to food and to coconuts, the most useful tree that we got, with its many uses. A seeming shortage of commodities has befallen with solutions still unclear, so until there is a concrete way to overcome these, people wait and see.

It’s like waiting for the inevitable Godot, while waiting, nothing happens. If these shortages do happen then, all hell will break loose and make people’s lives more miserable that it already is. Call me the voice of doom but with hike in prices of everything the past months and the extra hard life the common Pinoy is going through, these just make our lives a little bit more complicated.

In the fringes of the pandemic, which is still in effect, we are left with the task of going back to the old normal in the setting of the new normal. We are now tasked to return to our lives and pick up where we left off, but with added obstacles to hurdle. When we fall short of answers, there is one thing left to do.

Pray.