"This is a more progressive way of ensuring not just more pork at the table but more jobs and a sustainable food supply for all."
Senator Christopher Lawrence "Kuya Bong" Go, President Duterte's long time assistant and considered the public official closest to the Palace, has been quoted as saying a new executive order will soon be issued imposing price control on a host of basic agricultural products particularly pork, chicken and, possibly, vegetables.
There is a need, the good senator said, to impose price caps on these products, especially pork, to ensure the availability of these basic commodities given the dire straits everybody is in under the pandemic. This move comes in the wake of the reported spike in the prices of these products immediately after the holiday season. Agriculture Secretary William Dar cited, in particular, the hike in the price of pork reportedly based on the farm gate price of pork in a Batangas hog farm. It was reported that at that facility the price was only P220/kilo which is only half of the price in Metro Manila markets. Dar did not disclose whether other farms in Batangas and in other Calabarzon provinces where more than a third of pork products sold in Metro Manila were also selling at P220/kilo. Perhaps it did not matter to him anymore since the possibility of inadequate local supply and continuing price hikes has been injected in the public mind requiring immediate government intervention. Thus, they resort to more imports and now price control.
Whether this drastic measure which, for all intents and purposes, should only be considered in the extreme when all other possible ones needed to mitigate any sudden spikes in basic goods no longer suffice will serve the purpose remains to be seen. Suffice it to say that this proposal which will reportedly come as a package that includes the increase in the minimum access volume (MAV) of pork imports and, get this, a reduction in tariff to zero from a high of 40 percent.
If the report is true and President Duterte decides on this three-point plan, then we can say goodbye to the rehabilitation of our hog-raising industry at this time. Maybe even for years to come.
As Marikina Representative Stella Quimbo, a known economist and co-chairman of the House Committee on Economic Recovery, noted in a resolution to inquire into this problem: "Imposing price ceilings on pork products in the midst of a shortage will only further disincentivize suppliers that are already struggling from the challenges imposed by recent calamities."
Quimbo, who has long been an advocate for agricultural productivity and food security, cited the continuing inability of the Department of Agriculture to stem the spread of the deadly African Swine Flu (ASF) disease which has ravaged a lot of hog raisers, mostly backyard and small producers in Central and Southern Luzon, as a major factor in the inadequate supply of locally produced pork. Add to that the continued problem of funding and logistical support for these producers as they struggle to get back to work and bring their produce to market. Even the fact that so far hog raisers in the Visayas and Mindanao have more than enough supply to augment the requirements of Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon did not escape Quimbo's mind.
She noted that if only we had prepared for faster and more reliable transport of feeds and other basic production inputs and, conversely, the means to bring these products to markets anywhere in the country then we wouldn't be in such a panic mode. As a matter of fact, she reminded Secretary Dar and agriculture officials that a price freeze was imposed just two months ago last year following the various typhoons and calamities which visited the country. Imposing price control on top of that earlier freeze without giving our producers some breathing space would truly be too heavy a burden.
Instead of price control with the added twist of increasing the MAV and reducing tariff which will only benefit the foreign hog raisers and the favored importers, we should be providing more funding and technical support to our hog raisers. As Quimbo so correctly noted, we should encourage more investments (re-capitalizing our producers by way of low interest loans and affordable inputs would serve us in good stead) and intensify enforcement against smuggling of pork and other agricultural products.
So, instead of resorting to more imports and price control as the go-to measure in times like this in a bid to "balance the interests of consumers and traders," Senator Go and the administration should take pause and talk about the need to enhance local production and incentivize our small, backyard farmers to ensure more jobs and our very own food security The balancing the interests should not be just between consumers and traders, specially of the importing kind, but more so that of our local producers. That is the better and more progressive way of ensuring not just more pork at the table but more jobs and a sustainable food supply for all.