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By July 6, 2014Governance, News

SINAG calls for BPI brass resignation

ROSALES—The multi-industry alliance Samahan ng Industriya at Agrikultura (SINAG) has called on the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) Director Clarito Barron to resign for failing to protect the interest of farmers, amidst price hike on garlic and other agricultural commodities.

SINAG Chairman Rosendo So said that local garlic production in 1990 was 17,848, 870 kilograms (kg) but the country now produces 8,847,000 kg only.

Local consumption at that time was at 40-million kg which was about 48 percent only of the local production, he said.

“If our annual demand for garlic, based on Department of Agriculture presentation in the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, will reach 100 million kg, it means that our local production is only 8 per cent of the total volume needed,” So said.

He added if every time the country will import, when harvest of the local production is too little, this will kill local farmers since the price of imported garlic is only P17/kg.

He said the import price of garlic is P17/kg and sold at P300. “This is 1,664% hike,” So said.

Local garlic at production cost is P40/kg from the farmers and sold at wholesale price of P60, he said.

So said Barron did it before with onions when he issued permit in January for the entry of imported produce at a time when harvest of local farmers was ongoing in February and March.

As such, local onion growers incurred losses as the markets were flooded with imported products, he added.

BPI permits for imported garlic were also issued in March and April simultaneous with local harvest so there was a dip of prices for local produce.

“The issuance of permit must not coincide with the timing of harvest of local farmers,” So said.

With this unabated practice, traders will buy from farmers at a lower price but when the farmers do not have stock anymore, they sell the goods at P300/kg to the detriment of farmers who labored hard, So said.

Mamamatay yung local farmer kung hindi magre-resign si Barron, wala siyang paki- alam sa mga magsasaka ng ating bayan (Our local farmers would die if Barron would not resign, he does not look after the welfare of our country’s farmers),” So said.

He added that Barron claimed during the Senate hearing the other day that there is no local production of white onions when records show that the country produces 25-million kg.

“He has no idea so he better resign,” So said.

Price manipulation, wanton importation and smuggling

In the Senate hearing Thursday, Sen. Cynthia Villar who chairs the Committee on Agriculture and Food was quoted as saying in a national daily that the sudden increase in garlic prices was a result of price manipulation.

In the same report, it mentioned that SINAG lamented that local garlic producers are struggling to recover from the 20-year policy of “wanton importation and smuggling” in lieu of domestic production.

It quoted SINAG chair Rosendo So as saying that importers and traders continue to dictate prices, which was a result of over reliance on imports and unabated smuggling.

“When the local competition has been eliminated or reduced to insignificance, importers, smugglers and unscrupulous traders who now have monopoly control can dictate prices. That’s what happened to our garlic industry,” he said.

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