The losses incurred by vegetable producers due to the quarantine measures taken in response to the Covid-19 pandemic have recently been aggravated by the smuggling of cheap but unsafe vegetables from China.
Highland vegetable farmers are alarmed about the entry of cheap smuggled cabbages, carrots, and broccoli from China into Divisoria and other wholesale markets in Metro-Manila.
Cabbage and carrot, along with potato, are the main crops in most vegetable producing villages in Benguet, the Mountain Province, and Ifugao, while broccoli, along with tomatoes, are the main crops in other villages within these same provinces. Vegetable production is the main livelihood of some 58,000 households in the said areas.
Divisoria and other markets in Metro-Manila absorb around half of the vegetable production. Daily, Metro-Manila absorbs about a thousand kilograms of carrots, in particular.
The smuggling has resulted in the sudden drop of both price and demand. Carrots and cabbages that were sold in Metro-Manila at P85 to P115 per kilo now have to compete with imports sold at P70 and P60 per kilo, respectively.
It has been a pattern observable during the past few years that whenever the prices of local produce increased, there would be an influx of vegetables from China and other countries, either smuggled or legally imported.
When prices are depressed, local farmers are forced to dispose of their produce at a loss because they cannot store these for long. Their vegetables have a limited shelf life. And this shelf life is much shorter than that of vegetables imported from China. Local carrots, for example, start to wilt after only three days, while those from China last up to a month – indicating that these imports have been treated with some preservative, e.g. formalin.
The situation points to problems in the Philippine agricultural market that run deeper than the issue of smuggling. One is the problem of price volatility, and of government’s unwillingness to institute regulatory mechanisms which can protect farmers from sudden reductions and consumers from sudden escalations in produce prices. Coupled with this is the absence of regulation in the prices of inputs, which have risen continually and now account for 38% to 54% of vegetable production cost.
Lack of intervention on behalf of both farmers and consumers is reflective of the neo-liberal position that government has assumed vis-à-vis the economy. Giving business free rein, government is refusing to govern over the most basic of economic issues – i.e. food, its production and consumption. Its liberalization of the rice market and its response to the pork crisis show that it prefers to let businesses import our needs than actively assist our producers in supplying those needs at prices accessible to our consumers. Even its actions on vegetable smuggling are belated, haphazard, half-hearted, and weak.
Support our food growers! Ensure food self-sufficiency and accessibility! Junk neo-liberalist policies! # 30 September 2021
Alyánsa dagiti Pesánte iti Taéng Kordilyéra
Alliance of Peasants in the Cordillera
#16 Loro Street, Dizon Subdivision, Baguio City
e-mail: apittako@protonmail.com