A new festival will be launched this month in the Sugar Bowl of the Philippines and the City of Smiles. The 1st Sugar & Smiles Festival reels off on Sept. 15 to 17, 2023, at SM City Bacolod. The theme for this year鈥檚 maiden edition is 鈥淪olidarity and Diversity in the Philippines鈥� Premier Agri Industry.鈥�
Co-presented by the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), Sugarsmiles Philippines Management Inc. (SPMI), and the SM Group, the Sugar & Smiles Festival will bring together various stakeholders and market players to promote the growth and development of the sugar industry. Participating in the festival are the three major industry federations, namely: National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, Confederation of Sugar Producers鈥� Associations, and United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines.
SRA is the industry regulator and national government agency headed by newly appointed Administrator Pablo S. Azcona, who will deliver the keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the festival on Sept. 15. SPMI is a Filipino company formed by Negrenses who published the first coffee table book about Negros Occidental titled Sugar & Smiles: The Negrense Legacy Beyond 2020.
The book recently won the 2023 Gold Quill Award in Toronto, Canada, and the 2023 Silver Quill Award in Bali, Indonesia, bestowed by the Chicago-based International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and its Singapore-based regional arm, IABC Asia Pacific.
The three-day festival also aims to build up the industry鈥檚 food subsector that uses sugar cane and its by-products through a cluster of booths at SM City Bacolod鈥檚 Northwing Activity Center. Highlighting the festival is the search for the first-ever Miss Young Sugarlandia who will be selected from among 10 finalists on Sept. 17.
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