THE Department of Agriculture (DA) stood pat on its stance to support the extension of lower tariffs on key commodities, arguing that the measure was “necessary” to stabilize prices in the market despite an uproar from agriculture stakeholders. The biggest agricultural coalition stressed there is no shortage of food supply, “only exploitation” by some quarters, and lamented Malacañang’s decision to heed solely the advice of economic managers.
Agriculture Undersecretary Mercedita A. Sombilla said the issuance of Executive Order (EO) 10, which extended lower tariff rates on pork, rice, and corn until the end of the year, was “necessary” to address supply pressure that the country is facing.
For example, Sombilla pointed out that the pace of recovery of local pork production could still not keep up with the country’s demand as hog farms reel from the consequences of African swine fever.
Sombilla emphasized that it is not only food producers that are affected by skyrocketing prices but also consumers and processors.
“It is the DA’s responsibility to help in tempering and stabilizing prices. We are really trying to lower food prices because it is the whole economy that suffers, not only the producers but also consumers and processors,” she told reporters on Wednesday.
Sombilla claimed that the benefit of extending the lower tariffs would “offset” whatever revenue losses the government might incur in the short term. She added that imports are needed to serve as “support” to the country’s food supply.
“[We import] not to exceed what we really need, but to import enough so that we are able to fill up whatever deficits we have and help stabilize prices, and hopefully to reduce prices,” she said.
President Marcos Jr., who is concurrently agriculture secretary, signed EO 10 last December 29, but this was only made public recently.
Meat Importers and Traders Association (Mita) assured the public that its members would be able to maintain “low” wholesale prices of imported pork because of EO 10.
“We will work with the government and call on stakeholders to manage the value chain in order to lower the retail price for the consumers,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The EO is a balanced order which could mitigate the rise, if not lower, the cost of power and feed for our poultry and hog growers,” it added.
Mita called on the government to hike its support to the corn sector to make it more efficient and cost-competitive to accelerate the growth of domestic pork and poultry industries. Nonetheless, the group also reiterated its appeal to the government to make the lower corn tariff permanent and maintain the lower pork tariff for five years.
“This will allow the market to attain equilibrium and enable the consumers to benefit,” Mita said.
SINAG’S lament
MEANWHILE, the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) on Wednesday lamented the issuance of EO 10, arguing that it was “unfortunate” that Marcos heeded the economic managers instead of listening to agricultural stakeholders. The group claimed that there is no pork deficit in the country as cold storages, based on government data, are overflowing with supply, majority of which are imported.
“The content of warehouses is unprecedented. The volume is not going down, it keeps growing in cold storages, beyond their capacity. Week in week out, it’s at 110 million plus kilos—the biggest recorded stocks of pork imports,” the group said, in a statement partly in Filipino.
The umbrella group maintained that there is no supply gap persisting in key commodities. Sinag argued that if there was a shortage, then the farm-gate prices of agricultural products would have shot up a long time ago.
“Walang shortage, pero merong nagsasamantala [There is no shortage, but some people are exploiting the situation],” it said.
“Importers and traders continue to dominate the retail market and rake in profits; at the expense of the producers, consumers and the foregone revenues ng government,” it added.
The government, since the Duterte administration, has been using the reduction of tariffs to boost local food supply and temper increase in domestic prices.
The supply constraints, expected global food supply shortage and rise in commodity prices prompted President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to extend once again the temporary tariff reduction for pork, corn, rice and coal.
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza