Poultry raisers seek Palace intervention on import issue

Local poultry raisers have sought the intervention of President Duterte to stop the importation of chicken meat, pork and processed meat products as an oversupply has resulted in the decline of farmgate prices.

In a letter to Duterte, the United Broilers and Raisers Association (UBRA) noted that the “Department of Agriculture has consistently used trade commitments as an excuse to stand aside and let stakeholders be damaged by imports from countries with heavily subsidized agricultural systems.”

UBRA president Elias Jose Inciong said the DA has failed to address the disconnect between the price of chicken in supermarkets and wet markets and the farmgate price received as compensation for farmers.

As chicken farmgate price dropped to P30 per kilo during the lockdown, price of chicken reaching consumers remained high at P150 to P170 per kilo.

“It indicates traders and importers are the ones taking advantage of windfall profit from price difference. It is neither consumers, nor farmers,” Inciong said.

“This behavior is always couched in a supposed concern for consumers. The DA, however, has never effectively addressed the disconnect between farmgate prices and retail prices. Thus, it is an empty concern,” he said.

Amid the neglect for agriculture for many years, the groups said DA never had a long term commitment to the sector.

“Knowing Filipino farmers are poor, the government must act speedily in implementing trade remedies once the world market points to dumping of cheap, bulkier volumes of imports that render more farmers impoverished. Instead, it hastily resorts to importation,” Inciong said.

Inciong said the DA must be able to intervene especially in extreme cases of oversupply during a pandemic or when there is abnormally low international commodity prices.

“The government acts with alacrity when supply is tight by resorting to importation. In times of oversupply, should not the government act just as fast by stopping importation or reducing supply by some other mechanism?” he said.

UBRA and the other groups have been calling for legislative reforms in the poultry and livestock sectors. These include decentralization of functions, reformatting of the sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance, misdeclaration of products, and conduct of trade remedies.

They are also pushing for improved trading system, construction of cold-chain-ready quarantine facilities, support for the corn sector and strict enforcement of the Price Act.

“The reform agenda is necessary to avoid a drastic and involuntary cut in production caused by heavy losses. There will be a domino impact,” Inciong said.