Shortage, food inflation to push up living expenses

“Bahay Kubo” vegetable prices spiked P10-P100 per kilo last week. Eggplant, tomato, gourd, squash, radish, mustard, beans, cabbage, lettuce are becoming unaffordable. The ”-ber months” of the long Filipino Yuletide have just begun. Data indicate worse times ahead.

Five years of bad governance have clobbered the vegetable and fruit sector. Over-importation and unabated agri-smuggling drove many planters out of business. Weather disturbances, tripling of fertilizer rates and costly transport fuel and warehouse electricity finished off the stragglers. Rosendo So, chairman of Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, does not see production recovering soon.

Spices are expensive – if one can find onion, garlic, ginger and chili at all. Few grew red onion this season, says Ronnie Ringor of Pangasinan. White variety sells for a staggering P450-P500 a kilo.

Last summer the government let the import cartel flood Luzon with cheap Indian shallot, the first time since 1946. With no storage support, Mindoro farmers had to burn nine million kilos of rotting produce. The cartelists were identified in two Senate hearings last June and again last week. Government has not put them behind bars for no-bail, life-term economic sabotage.

Over-importation and meager assistance for fertilizer and transportation have discouraged corn growers. Drop in harvest set off a chain reaction.

Philippine corn is the best poultry feed, says Elias Inciong, United Broiler Raisers Association president. With supply scarce, they had to turn to pricier foreign brands. The long humid summer further stunted chickens due to poor appetite.

Only a few raisers remain. Last July’s sudden shortage of chicken breast and thigh in restaurant chains can recur. Agriculture officials justified the imports as “pro-consumer.” The Bureau of Animal Industry permitted 212.4 million kilos from abroad in the first seven months of 2022. Yet since July, consumer prices jumped P20 per kilo per month, from P180 to P220.

Pork imports also rose 19.4 percent to 397.9 kilos. But tariffs were slashed to only 15-25 percent, again purportedly for consumers. The tariff cut left the government with little cash to buy and bury diseased stocks from backyard piggeries. African Swine Fever continues to spread in Luzon. Ham makers and meat processors are petitioning for price increases, trade officials said Monday.

Fish prices are rising. Bangus began to retail P20 more per kilo Sept. 1 due to feed scarcity. Hog raisers oppose the import of processed animal protein, the superior fish fattener, from ASF-infested countries. Bangus and tilapia growers counter that the ASF virus is destroyed because PAP is prepared at 70 degrees Centigrade or higher. The Dept. of Agriculture must referee the debate, aquaculturist Norbert Chingcuanco says. Meanwhile, Taal volcanic rumblings can disrupt tilapia harvest.

Expect 20-25 percent inventory drop in canned sardines, adds Roderic Santos, Association of Fresh Fish Traders president. Bulusan volcano’s eruption last June marred fishing in Bicol. Stronger habagat (southwest monsoon) and costly fuel disheartened fishers there and in Samar-Leyte. Commercial fishers stay home at the slightest inkling of losses from full moon, heavy rains, current and distance. Supplies to three sardine canneries in Luzon are down. Reports are awaited from Zamboanga counterparts.

Senators are investigating last month’s 300,000-ton sugar import mess. Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez and sugar regulators blamed each other for it.

Obvious from testimonies is that government, again invoking consumer welfare, has been importing more industrial sugar than for home use. Sugarcane millers claim that domestic production is 400,000 tons short due to usual poor farming and last December’s typhoon. But Customs raids of seaports and warehouses yield millions of sacks, notes SINAG’s So. The raids turned out to be false alarms of smuggling and hoarding. Fifteen-day delays in sugar stock unloading and trading have increased demurrage and storage costs, which will likely be passed on to buyers.

In 1997 president Fidel Ramos, Senate president Ed Angara and Speaker Joe de Venecia enacted a visionary Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization. Later presidents and Congresses ruined the industry. Machineries for farmer cooperatives were procured at overprice. Ghost river dredging, allegedly to avert farm flooding, became pork barrel fronts. Up to 1990 the Philippines was self-sufficient in salt; by 2008 it was importing 80 percent. Today the 7,641 islands buy 93 percent from abroad.

The Philippines must import 2.9 million tons of rice per year. International prices are high due to floods, wars and droughts. Food inflation will push up other costs of living: transportation, utilities, medicine, housing. If President Bongbong Marcos as agriculture secretary is able to avert food shortage, he will get no thanks since he’s expected to do that. If he fails…

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