The Department of Agriculture (DA) has suspended 43 companies from securing sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) import clearances for garlic for not utilizing the import permits they secured which resulted in a supply shortage that pushed prices of garlic in the domestic market in May.
In a press conference yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the 43 companies secured permits to import 70,100 metric tons of garlic between January and July 2017 but brought in only 19,250 metric tons.
Piñol signed an administrative order that “suspended and/or prohibited from applying for and securing Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) Import Clearance for garlic” the 43 companies.
“These companies failed to utilize (import) their approved SPS-IC, thus affecting domestic supply of garlic that resulted in unreasonable market price increase to the detriment of Filipino consumers,” the administrative order stated.
Piñol’s directive was in response to the growing clamor for stronger government action to curb rising prices of garlic in the domestic market, which reached a high of P200 a kilo from April to June this year before returning to the “normal” price of between P90 to P120 a kilo as of today.
He noted that the prices stabilized at P120 a kilo after the DA, led by Undersecretary for Operations Ariel Cayanan, summoned garlic importers in May and warned them to utilize their import permits to stabilize supply and trigger lower prices in the domestic market or face administrative sanctions.
The DA Secretary noted that of the 130,000 metric tons of garlic used by Filipinos every year, local garlic producers could only produce as much as 7,246 metric tons thus exposing the domestic market to price manipulation by greedy traders who have formed a “cartel” to strengthen their control over supply and prices.
Piñol said that as a long-term solution, the DAF is seeking the planting of garlic in an additional 30,000 hectares of farm suitable to garlic.
With an average garlic production of 3.5 metric tons per hectare, this could result in an increase of 120,000 metric tons in local garlic production, he said.
The DA Secretary said the Agriculture Credit Policy Council (ACPC) has started accrediting farmers in Bongabong, Nueva Ecija so they could qualify for the P25,000 Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) Program per farming family to encourage them to go into garlic farming by providing them their initial production cost requirement.
He said the DA is also pushing for a bigger budget for the construction of cold storage facilities for garlic and onion farmers so that bigger production could be stored for longer periods after the harvest season.
Piñol said the garlic cartel is taking advantage of the lack of cold storage facilities to discourage farmers from planting garlic so they could control importation and manipulate domestic prices.
To dismantle the garlic import cartel, the DA will review the list of all importers to determine their authenticity and require their owners to appear personally when seeking the extension or applying for new import clearances, the DA Secretary said. (DA-AFID)
