SINAG tells DA to focus on expanding local production
The Department of Agriculture (DA) should focus on expanding local production to address the rising prices of agricultural products, a farmers' group said Wednesday, citing a significant increase in the importation of rice, pork, and onion.
In an interview with dzBB, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) chairman Rosendo So said the volume of rice imports rose by over 30 percent in about six years.
“Last year, 3.5 million metric tons (MT) of rice or 70 million sacks. But around five to six years ago, we only imported 1.2 million metric tons or 24 million tons. At that time, the retail price was P32 (per kilogram). But during these past four years when they increased the volume of importation, the price did not go down, it even went up,” So said.
He said that the price of "palay" is now at P22, so the retail price of rice may increase.
According to So, the volume of pork imports increased to more than double in three years.
“It’s also the same with pork. Three years ago, we only imported 250,000 (MT). Now, we’re importing up to 700,000 metric tons,” he said
“I hope that the local production would be expanded instead of increasing the volume of imports. Because when the importation increased, the local farmers backed out,” he added.
So said the DA should be monitoring the retail prices of agricultural products to prevent further price hikes.
"We always tell the Department of Agriculture to monitor the retail prices. It's like those who transport or deliver the goods are earning more. And (President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.) has given them instructions to monitor the transport and delivery prices of the goods and check why it is far from the farmgate price," he said.
According to So, it was the wrong time for the DA to approve the importation of onions. “Our projected harvest of onions next month would be up to 20,000 MT.
And they (DA) want to import 21,000 MT. But the consumption is only up to 14,000 MT. So if there are local onions produced plus the imports, the farmers might ask who will buy from them. Will they buy from the farmers? The DA buys the onions at P537 and then sells them at P170. Maybe the DA should buy the produce of farmers if they could not sell them. That’s one way to solve the problem. So if they need to import they also need to monitor when the farmers will harvest. They aren’t monitoring when the farmers will harvest so they are importing again,” So said over dzBB.
“If they imported from November to December that would have been the right timing. But if they are going to import in February, it’s the wrong timing. The farmers might say that if they can’t sell onions in the country then they’ll just export them. So how do we deal with that? We’re going to import and then export our local onions,” he added.
Marcos, who also serves as the concurrent Agriculture Secretary, this week approved the importation of 21,060 metric tons of onions in an effort to reduce their price.
DA Undersecretary Kristine Evangelista earlier said in a briefing that they will be implementing a calibrated importation of onions.
So said the DA had yet to distribute the P4 million budget allocated for the fertilizer subsidy that Marcos had promised to rice farmers since December.
“The DA has been announcing since last month that the (fertilizer subsidy) is already for release but until now, our farmers have not received anything. USec. (Domingo) Panganiban only has to give the go signal. That means the funds were already given to the (regional directors). He will tell them to start distributing them to farmers. But he isn’t doing it, that’s the problem,” So said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
