The Department of Agriculture (DA) called on the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to launch a global appeal to keep food and agricultural markets open amid the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war.
In a letter to FAO director general Qu Dongyu, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar appealed for FAO to “spearhead another global appeal to various countries to keep unhampered the movement of food and agricultural inputs as part of the global effort to build more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agriculture and food systems.”
Dar noted that the war waged by Russia in Ukraine has caused inflation and food security issues worldwide to reach alarming levels, triggering huge spikes in prices of wheat and other important commodities such as oil, fertilizers, and grains.
“As the Ukraine-Russia war persists, we are in for a food crisis, as with the rest of the world. It is imperative and urgent for the Philippine government to ensure that we have adequate, affordable and accessible supply of basic food items and agricultural inputs to ensure continued productivity,” Dar said.
With the disruption in the global food chain to cause a staggering effect on food affordability and accessibility, the DA continues to employ measures to mitigate these impacts. On top of the list is to boost the country’s local food production.
The DA restructured most of its programs since the advent of COVID-19 pandemic, to cater to the emergency needs of farmers, fishers, and the consuming public.
These involved easy and affordable financing services, technical support, farm inputs, equipment and machinery that were provided to farmers and fishers.
In addition, the DA launched a food marketing program through the Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita to help consumers have access to more affordable food.
To cushion the effects of price hikes in fuel, the DA also provided fuel subsidies through its fuel discount vouchers totaling to P1.1 billion, which were distributed to corn farmers and fishers.
Meanwhile, industrial bakers are poised to again increase the price of branded breads by July 2022, as the cost of baking ingredients such as sugar and flour, including fuel, continue to rise unabatedly.
Industry leader Gardenia Bakeries Philippines, Inc. said bakers are feeling the pinch of steady rise in the cost of raw materials, despite cost-cutting remedies.
“We are still consolidating all ingredients and production cost increases this month. We may increase prices in July,” said Gardenia Bakeries president Simplicio Umali.
He added the company is bound by social responsibility to consumers to inform them when and how much the price hike will be.
“We will announce (the price increase) when ready. Meanwhile we are exploring more cost reduction efforts in operating cost to counter inflation such as fuel, electricity and labor cost. On ingredients, we are not making any changes as we want to assure the market of consistent product quality,” Umali said.
Branded bread manufacturers raised their prices by 2 to 4 percent in April 2022.
The planned hike may coincide with the requested price adjustment for budget breads, which is likely to be approved by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in July 2022.
The DTI’s Consumer Protection Group (CPG) said there are only three items with remaining unfulfilled price adjustment in the May 11 Suggested Retail Price (SRP Bulletin).
These are budget breads, a detergent bar brand and a canned sardines brand. These will be included in the next SRP bulletin along with other stock keeping units (SKUs) with standing requests for price increases.
Trade Undersecretary Ruth Castelo assured consumers that the number of SKUs that will be allowed to raise prices will not exceed 30 percent of the total SKUs in the SRP list. At present there are 212 SKUs in the SRP bulletin.
She added that the most an item is allowed to increase is 10 percent, which is a rare incidence. Usually, the highest allowed increase is about P1.50 per SKU.
“Manufacturers are allowed to file requests for price increases, and they can request all they want. But this does not mean that their requests will be approved by the DTI. All requests are processed and studied diligently by the DTI. It usually takes 4 to 6 weeks of assessment,” she said.
Malacanang assured the public that the government is doing its best to address hunger in the country.
Acting presidential spokesman Martin Andanar made the assurance after the Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported a higher hunger incidence in the country in the first quarter of 2022.
“We take note of the latest Social Weather Stations survey,” he said after the SWS’ April 19 to 27 survey, showed that around 12.2 percent or an estimated 3.1 million Filipino families experienced “involuntary” hunger from January to April 2022 due to lack of food.
The number of Filipino households who experienced hunger in the past three months of 2022 was 0.4 percentage points higher than the 11.8 percent or estimated 3 million families recorded in December 2021.
According to the SWS, the experience of hunger was highest in Metro Manila at 18.6 percent of families, followed by Mindanao at 13.1 percent, Balance Luzon at 11.7 percent, and the Visayas at 7.8 percent.