House panels urge DA: Curb price hikes

MANILA, Philippines — Leaders of two key congressional committees urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) the other day to step up efforts to bring down and stabilize runaway food prices, and vowed to provide legislative interventions to prevent price spikes and volatility in the future.

Speaking at the joint panel hearings, House trade and industry committee chair John Reynald Tiangco and agriculture and food committee chair Wilfrido Mark Enverga emphasized the need to control prices of basic commodities at a time when Filipinos are facing financial burdens due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Now more than ever, a transparent unbundling of the cost of food commodities from the grower, producer and livestock raiser, through various middlemen and distribution channels and eventually down to the retail level, must be made,” said Tiangco, who represents Navotas City.

Enverga likewise lamented that rising prices of food have forced families to make do with whatever little food they can afford.

“Is the government doing enough? We want to hear it straight from the good secretary so as to somehow pacify the consuming public,” the Quezon congressman directly asked Secretary William Dar.

In response, Dar attributed the price increases to what he described as a “perfect storm” the country faced last year – natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic and African swine fever (ASF) outbreak – that all contributed to the supply deficit of livestock and agricultural products.

Dar told lawmakers that the DA is prioritizing the increase in local production and that importation is considered a “last option” to balance the food supply and demand.

Based on DA’s price monitoring team, prices of agri-fishery commodities went up to as high as P400 last Jan. 18. Most notably, prices of pork rose to a high of P450 per kilo, while whole chicken rose to P180 a kilo.

This prompted President Duterte to issue an executive order for a price freeze on pork and chicken for 60 days. The price freeze will be implemented starting Feb. 8.

Dar said the DA is also in the process of improving and mobilizing the local food supply chain, as well as promoting food substitutes.

Earlier, the DA recommended increasing the minimum access volume (MAV) for pork imports from the present 54,000 metric tons to bring down high market prices and address shortage in domestic supply.

In the Senate, Sen. Imee Marcos warned that this plan to triple the country’s pork imports given a tax discount could push the country’s cold chain capacity beyond its limits to handle COVID-19 vaccines in the coming months.

“We may end up with spoiled meat and spoiled vaccines,” Marcos said.

“The National Task Force has not yet figured out cold chain logistics for the arrival and delivery of vaccines and here we are complicating the problem with a plan to triple the minimum access volume of pork imports,” she said.

Marcos, who chairs the Senate committee on economic affairs, said the Cold Chain Association of the Philippines has pegged its operating capacity at 70 percent of its full capacity of 400,000 metric tons.

“Even if cold chain capacity increases by 10 percent to 15 percent or about 40,000 metric tons more, according to the government’s roadmap in December, this may not accommodate a tripled MAV of 162,000 metric tons that will spur more pork imports,” Marcos said.

Hog raisers have criticized the DA for putting their livelihood at greater risk since the MAV’s lower tariff for pork imports would make small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs even less competitive and push them to shut down their businesses.

Marcos said: “The immediate solution to inflated pork prices is not importation. It is the direct and extensive government intervention to assist hog raisers.”

She said the DA should use its vehicles, personnel, assets and resources to transport hogs to Manila, especially from the Visayas and Mindanao. – Cecille Suerte Felipe