Animal raisers suffer losses due to 'midnight imports'

MANILA, Philippines - Agricultural Sector Alliance of the Philippines (AGAP) party-list Rep. Nicanor Briones yesterday blamed “midnight importation” of agricultural products as the reason why farmers and poultry and hog raisers are now suffering from losses.

In a media forum in Manila, Briones bared that imported agri-products are now flooding the markets due to huge importations made by unscrupulous businessmen having ties with officials of the past administration.

The unabated importations had resulted in the loss of profit for small farmers, particularly the backyard poultry raisers, who could not compete with lower prices of the imported products, he claimed.

Briones said he will appeal to President Aquino to temporarily suspend the importation of different agri-products to give chance for the small farmers and poultry and hog raisers to recoup their losses.

He also urged Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to act immediately on the problem to prevent the small farmers and backyard raisers from completely quitting their businesses.

The party-list representative stressed that the government must be “pro-farmers and pro-consumers” and directly help the poorest of the poor by giving them P1,000 ‘food stub subsidy,’ to be supervised by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

He said that “food stub” and not money should be given to the poor to make sure that they will not be able to use it to gamble.

Briones expressed belief that around four million poor Filipinos will benefit monthly from the P40-billion funds allotted to the National Food Authority (NFA) yearly for the importation and selling of cheap rice.