Smuggling of farm products still rampant

Smuggled agricultural commodities continue to flood the domestic market as farmgate prices dip along with production volume, according to the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag).

Sinag chair Rosendo So yesterday said the situation was most evident in the country’s top farm produce — rice, pig meat and poultry products.

So said that prices of hogs from backyard farms fell by about P15 a kilo over the past three months. He said a kilo of live hog now fetched P90 to P95, sliding from P105 to P108 a kilo in November 2015.

“At an average of 80 kilos per head and about 20 head per farm, this translates to a loss of P6,000 a month for backyard growers,” according to So.

Also, poultry prices have dipped to a range of P65 to P75 a kilo from a high of P85 to P90 a kilo. “This translates to an average loss of P3,250 a month over the past two months,” added So.

As for rice farmers, the Sinag chair said farmgate prices have decreased by P4 a kilo to a range of P19 to P21 from last year’s average of P22 to P24 a kilo.

“This is despite the spate of natural disasters that devastated crops,” said So. “The drop in prices means a loss of P12,000 per hectare for rice farmers.

“Farmers are not feeling the effects of decreased domestic production,” So said. “This means a continued proliferation of imported and smuggled agricultural commodities, mainly rice and pork.”

Earlier, Sinag said the value of agricultural commodities smuggled into the Philippines surged to about P182 billion in 2010-2014, almost double the contraband valued at P95 billion in 2005-2009.

The umbrella group of at least 33 organizations of farmers, agribusiness operators and party-list groups said this meant that the government lost some P60 billion to P80 billion on the importation of rice, pork, sugar, chicken, onion, carrots and garlic — considering that tariffs are set at 30 to 40 percent.