Wall flour

ONE OF Asia’s leading conglomerates seems to be targeting the food processing segment of the steady Philippine economy for huge investments, initially wanting to bet on the rather crowded flour business.
From what I have gathered, the highly diversified Asian group is hunting for an existing flour milling firm in the country – with emphasis on “existing.”
In fact, its plan to barge into the flour industry here is already common knowledge among the officials of the Philippine embassy in its country of origin.
But the Philippine flour industry is going through rough times, according to foreign institutions that forecast the import demand of various countries for grains such as wheat.
For instance, a report noted that last year, the entire industry operated at only about 50 percent of its rated capacity.
Last year, there were 15 operating flour millers in the country, while construction of two huge mills – much bigger than the existing mills – were underway, scheduled to open in about two years.
For several years now, the local flour sector has been fighting the flood of cheap flour here coming from Turkey, which was said to have eaten more than 10 percent of the local market.  So the local flour firms lobbied the government for a punitive 40-percent “dumping” duty on Turkish flour.
The lobby was led by Pafmil, the Philippine of Flour Millers, which grouped the seven pioneering flour companies now more than 50 years old. In short, they are influential!
The 40-percent duty was perhaps not an accident, because according to reports abroad, the price of imported Turkish flour was about 40-percent lower than the price of local flour.
Flour milling in the country is said to be a crowded industry at the moment, but the Asian conglomerate must be seeing something in the flour business here.
According to data from demand monitoring foreign institutions, the per capita consumption of flour in the Philippines is still far below that in its neighbors.
Bear in mind that other countries in the region also import mountains of flour, and all the import walls between them are about to be dismantled.
That fact perhaps did not escape the planners of that Asian conglomerate known worldwide for its consumer products, knowing that the one-market program in the region, called “Asean Integration,” is supposed to start this year.
Indeed, only the prospects in the flour business  encouraged the San Miguel group to build new flour factories in Batangas, where it also has a new grains terminal.
Reports said San Miguel Mills Inc. (SMMI), a subsidiary San Miguel Pure Foods Co., initiated talks with flour companies from Europe on possible partnerships in this business.
That, too, perhaps does not escape the planners of the conglomerate that has various joint ventures with gigantic groups all over the world.
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The Aquino (Part II) administration got flak in media for the famous “welcome” speech of our leader Benigno Simeon (a.k.a. BS) for Pope Francis, and the bright idea of somebody in the DSWD to hide about 500 street dwellers in a resort during the papal visit.
But one bright spot for the administration is its fight against human trafficking,  based on the Global Slavery Index, compiled and published by international group Walk Free Foundation, enlisting the help of business to help solve the problem of “modern slavery.”
In its ranking of countries based on efforts to fight human trafficking, the second edition of the Global Slavery Index put the Philippines at the top spot among Asian countries and third in the entire Asia-Pacific.
In its list of some 167 countries, the Philippines also placed No. 29, which is definitely not bad, considering that the foundation cited the Philippines as one of the countries exerting “strong efforts” in fighting trafficking, despite their limited resources.
The Philippines got a government response rating of “BB,” or above average, as the report noted that the government took “significant steps” to fight human trafficking.
Not too long ago, the Philippines faced the embarrassing prospect of a downgrade by the US state department in its yearly “trafficking in person report,” at the bottom of the Tier 3 classification, or countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards (based on the US law against trafficking) and are not even making significant efforts to do so.
Human trafficking is now considered as the world’s biggest transnational crime, alongside drugs and arms trade.
In 2012, the administration lobbied in Congress for amendments to the Anti-Trafficking in Person law, or RA 9208, pushing for stiff penalties.
Also, the administration formed the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking, or IACAT, to specialize in government programs against human trafficking, led by Justice Undersecretary Jose Vicente Salazar.
Among the initial actions of Salazar was this simple and obvious use of government prosecutors as heads of task forces at the DOJ regional levels, including specialized groups in seaports and airports.
Naturally, those prosecutors then must give preferential attention to human trafficking cases, precisely to eliminate the backlog. The DOJ quickly organized 17 task forces at around-the-clock “operations centers,” supported by a secretariat at the DOJ head office.
Thus, the Aquino (Part II) administration so far recorded 133 convictions. Last year, IACAT secured 40 convictions, an improvement of some 50 percent from the 2012 record.
From 2003 to 2010, in comparison, the DOJ recorded only 29 convictions.
But here is the top of the morning hour: the administration is aiming for an upgrade in the US state department’s yearly report, meaning from Tier 2 (the government does not fully comply with minimum standards but makes significant efforts) to the best record of Tier 1. This means total compliance with the minimum standards!