Solons push for reforms to make salt industry competitive
SENATE Majority Leader Joel Villanueva deplored the diminishing local salt industry even as the Philippines is known to have “the longest shorelines in the world that is conducive for salt production.”
Addressing the issue at the hybrid hearing of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform Wednesday, the lawmaker lamented that the Philippines’s salt industry is being “dwarfed by the salt production of neighboring countries with much smaller shorelines.”
“Unfortunately, we have not made full use of the resources that we have and the salt industry has consistently been in decline.”
Admitting that “it baffles me that the Philippines, an agricultural country with shorelines that stretches for thousands of kilometers, would import 93 percent of our total salt requirements,” the senator added that “this is very disheartening.”
Still, the Senate Majority Leader said he is banking on his fellow senators as the committee leader expressed the hope that the committee will pass his bill, Senate Bill No. 1450, otherwise known as the Salt Industry Development sooner.
During the public hearing Sen. Nancy Binay said she is in favor of implementing the necessary reforms like reducing restrictions on producing other forms of food-grade and industrial salt, and not just iodized salt as required by Republic Act 8172 to increase overall production in the salt industry.
Binay also suggested that salt businesses and cooperatives should be linked with the Philippine Coconut Authority to encourage coconut farmers to buy locally-produced salt for their fertilizer needs.
Wanted: Agri info system
AT the same time, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian pressed for an agriculture information system (AIS) to “prevent the manipulation of food prices in the market.”
Gatchalian said the AIS will deter price manipulation of food prices, such as in the case of onion, which has recently seen record levels.
The senator suggested that “an agriculture information system could prevent any artificial shortages that hoarders may possibly take advantage of for profiteering purposes.”
His Senate Bill No. 1374 or the Agriculture Information System Act, which he filed last year, seeks to establish an AIS which will serve as an online computer database where information on the demand for specific agricultural and fisheries commodities is gathered and uploaded simultaneously with the production data from farmers in every barangay.
“Lumalabas na hindi natutukan nang maigi ng Department of Agriculture ang suplay at demand ng sibuyas at umaasa lang sila sa datos na nilalabas ng Philippine Statistics Authority. Dapat may regular na stock balance at price monitoring na isinasagawa ang DA sa lahat ng produktong pang-agrikultura na makakatulong sa polisiya at tamang tyempo kung kailan mag-aangkat ng mga ito,” Gatchalian said, in observation of the result of the recent hearing of the Senate Committee on Agriculture.
“Kung alam nila kung nasaan ang supply, doon na sila kukuha para sa
Kadiwa Centers para maiwasang mabulok ang mga produktong pangagrikultura at para malaman nila kung saan magbibigay ng suporta para mapalakas ang produksyon.”
Gatchalian said once Senate Bill 1374 is enacted into law, “the system is expected not only to improve the productivity of farmers but ensure the adequacy of food supply in retail centers.”
According to the senator, the creation of AIS would also prevent unwarranted importation of farm products that could unduly impact the competitiveness of local farmers.
He said the AIS will merge and synchronize agricultural data from different sources into a cohesive database designed to facilitate linkages from the farm to the intended consumers, including global markets.