THE Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura has urged the Department of Justice to pursue cases earlier recommended by the National Bureau of Investigation against erring Bureau of Plant Industry officials and members of an importers group that cornered garlic import permits and allegedly dictated market prices.
“We find it preposterous that the current DA-BPI officials are unaware of the investigation conducted by both the DoJ and NBI at their very office,” said Rosendo So, SINAG chairman.
SINAG said the DoJ and NBI investigation revealed that one importers group cornered at least 75 percent of the total garlic importation in the country.
The group said local garlic producers were still struggling from the 25-year policy of wanton garlic importation and smuggling in lieu of domestic production.
“With only 6 percent of the country’s garlic requirements produced locally, importers and traders that form the garlic cartel continue to dictate prices since there’s no local production to counter the steep price of imported and/or smuggled garlic,” said So.
The Philippines currently imports about 93 percent of its garlic requirements.
“Dependence on imports has destroyed the country’s ability to produce food. The sad plight that continues to befall the local garlic industry is a glaring manifestation of this reckless policy of wanton importation at the expense of food security and rural livelihoods,” said So.
He added: “Some 20 years back, local production of garlic was enough to counter any deluge of garlic imports. Areas devoted to producing garlic in the early 90’s were at 10,000 plus hectares; today, it is less than 2,500 hectares.
“More than these numbers, our concern is with the thousands of garlic farmers and their families that have lost their livelihoods. Other garlic farmers opted to shift to other crops like corn or tobacco with their income greatly reduced.”
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol earlier said the government would blacklist 43 garlic importers for failing to import the commodity amid high demand that eventually led to excessive prices in the domestic market.
“We will blacklist importers. At the time that we needed to import, they did not import,” Piñol said.
Pinol said the 43 garlic importers were supposed to import 70,100 metric tons this year, but they were able to bring in only 19,000 metric tons.
“The problem is they do not want to import because of the high prices. I will issue an administrative order placing the issuances of [import permits] under the Office of the Secretary,” said Piñol.
Piñol confirmed the existence of cartels which manipulated the price of garlic in the country.
Piñol said “There are cartels manipulating the prices of at least four basic commodities whose level of production is not enough to supply the requirements of the country.
These four commodities are rice, meat, garlic and onion and milk and dairy products. The most serious problem of supply and price manipulation is in the garlic and onion sectors.”