Month: June 2020

June 24, 2020

The private sector has elevated to President Duterte, Senate and Lower House a pleading against the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) “alacrity” to give in to massive imports to “feign empty concern for consumers” and abject refusal to find World Trade Organization (WTO)-sanctioned “trade remedies.”

   With an expanding number of agriculture sector advocates for reforms, the United Broilers and Raisers Association (UBRA), along with 25 signatories, advanced their open letter to Malacanang and the legislature.  This amid DA’s silence to eight radical reforms that will uplift not only consumers’ welfare, but also Filipino farmers’.

   It is counterintuitive that DA uses consumer protection to rationalize surging imports.     

   Illogically, it fails to address the flagrant disconnect between price of chicken in supermarkets and wet markets and the farmgate price received as compensation of farmers.

   As chicken farmgate price reeled down to P30 per kilo during the lockdown, price of chicken reaching consumers remained high at P150 to P170 per kilo during the Covid 19 ECQ (enhanced community quarantine). It indicates traders and importers are the ones taking advantage of windfall profit from price difference. It is neither consumers, nor farmers.

    Unfortunately, this case applies even to other agricultural commodities such as rice.

   “This behavior (alacrity to import) is always couched in a supposed concern for consumers. The DA, however, has never effectively addressed the disconnect between farmgate prices and retail prices. Thus, it is an empty concern,” said UBRA in its letter to President Duterte. 

   UBRA testifies to this alacrity to import via a recorded video on a meeting with DA-Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) on May 27, 2020 (link attached).

   With the Covid 19 crisis, revenue sources the Philippines depends upon—Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) and business process outsourcing (BPO)—are proving to be unstable.

   It is thus urgent to prioritize agriculture.

   “For decades, OFW remittances, BPO revenues, and tourism have propped up our economy at great sacrifice by the young men and women, especially millennials, who work in these fields. These are now challenged not only by Covid 19 but also by trends that may undermine its sustainability,” according to UBRA.

   “Other countries are seeking to provide work for their own people. BPOs are threatened by digitalization which includes artificial intelligence, and robotics.  Tourism’s horizon is murky in the near and medium term.  A resilient economy with a population our size needs agriculture and manufacturing.”

   Desperate about the neglect of agriculture for many years, the UBRA officials led by Gregorio A. San Diego Jr, chairman, and Lawyer Elias Jose M. Inciong, president, said DA never had a “long term commitment” to the sector.

   It has never at all implemented the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA, RA 8435 of 1997).

   “The institution supposed to lead the sector to success, the DA, has only resorted to what Mckinsey & Company calls ‘short termism,’” said San Diego and Inciong.

   “Unlike other countries which have had success in agriculture as members of the WTO, the DA has consistently used our trade commitments as an excuse to stand aside and let stakeholders be damaged by imports from countries with heavily subsidized agricultural systems.”

   In a sigh of hopelessness, the poultry raisers asked, “How come DA has never shown interest in finding out how other countries managed to protect their agricultural sector for the long term? Every administration has committed to develop the sector but the results have been dismal.”

   Knowing Filipino farmers are poor, government must act speedily in implementing trade remedies once world market points to dumping of cheap, bulkier volume of imports that render more farmers impoverished. Instead, it speedily resorts to importation.

   Trade remedies such as special safeguards measure (SSG) are sanctioned by WTO and the Safeguard Measures Act (RA8800) to “protect domestic industries …from increased imports which cause or threaten to cause serious injury to domestic industries.”

  “The DA, must be able to intervene especially in extreme cases of oversupply brought about by Covid 19 pandemic or (when there is) abnormally low international commodity prices,” said UBRA.

  “The government acts with alacrity when supply is tight by resorting to importation. In times of oversupply, should not the government act just as fast by stopping importation or reducing supply by some other mechanism?”

  Signatories to the letter to Malacanang include Phil. Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc (Danilo V. Fausto); Nat’l. Federation of Hog Farmers (Chester Warren Y. Tan); Phil. Assn of Feedmillers Inc. (Stephanie Nicole S. Garcia); Phil Maize Federation Inc. (Roger V. Navarro); Phil. College of Poultry Practitioners (Dr.Cesar F. POlicarpio); Phil. Veterinary Drug Assn (Dr. Eugenio P. Mende); Phil Eggboard Assn (Atty. Irwin M. Ambal); PVDA Found Inc. (Danilo A. Sanchez); and Phil. Veterinary Medical Assn (Dr. Corazon P. Occidental).

   The rest are Simon Enterprises INc. (Tita Chua); Phil. Assn of Breeder Layer Inc (Leopoldo Mendoza); Phil. Eggboard Producers Coop (Arthur Baron); PROPORK (Edwin G. Chen); Phil. Poultry Integrated Alliance (Peter So); Paritas Trading Corp. (Eric Bailon); ALDEC (Cristina Villaluz); Apache Mountain Ranch (Cedric Sycip); Bettina Farm (Ricardo B. Talento); Bounty Agro Ventures Inc. (Ronald Mascarinas); Chicumi Farms (Ricardo C. Clarin Jr); and Chicken EssentialsPhils Inc (Marvin Mendoza).

   Here are their eight-point “Call for Reforms by the Stakeholders in the Poultry and Livestock Sectors to the Executive and Legislature:”

   1.  The urgent need for decentralization of functions. There should be check and balance. Everything is lodged with the BAI. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) should be involved in the issuance of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Import Clearance (SPS IC).  Agencies like the Department of Science and Technology and the Philippine Statistics Authority should do gathering, analysis, and publication of data so that stakeholders can make informed business decisions. Presently, everyone is blind, especially the government, in terms of both local and international data.  

   2.  Reformattting of the SPS IC  to simplify and facilitate collection of tariffs and duties and their reporting.

   3. Address under-evaluation through WTO-allowed methods and the regular comparison and publication of the composition and volume of exports by country of origin as against the data of BAI and Bureau of Customs. This minimizes misdeclaration of products.

   4. Conduct studies on trade remedies not only for poultry and livestock but for the entire agri-fisheries sector. What did other countries do which encouraged a commitment for the long term from government and stakeholders?

   5.  Establish confidence in the trading system of chicken meat by addressing the alleged abuses in Customs Bonded Warehouse (CBW) 0% tariff privileges. The BAI and NMIS (National Meat Inspection System) have not presented any data on this for years. UBRA has just asked DTI this data. 

   6.Construct cold-chain-ready quarantine facilities at the Customs border so that inspection can be done before the payment of tariffs and duties.  The current so-called 2nd Border Control does not work. The system is below international standards and has allowed the entry of diseases such as ASF (African swine flu), bird flu, and the smuggling of prohibited pork and poultry products from China.

   7.  Support the corn sector to enable poultry and livestock sectors’ access to affordable yellow corn for feeds  when there are no corn harvests.

   8. Address the disconnect between farmgate and retail prices either through a more effective enforcement of the Price Act and a program of consumer subsidies similar to the program provided in the series of Farm Bills in the United States. 

    “The reform agenda is necessary to avoid a drastic and involuntary cut in production caused by heavy losses. There will be a domino impact on the feed milling industry, corn farmers, rice farmers by way of their rice bran, producers of coco oil, molasses, fish meal, suppliers of soya bean meal, mineral sources, and veterinary products.”

   The same malevolent effect will be on the “agri-processing of the value chain such as cutting and marination all the way to agriservices like food service outlets, groceries, cold storage, transportation, warehousing, packaging, and financing.” (Melody Mendoza Aguiba)

  

.

June 16, 2020

Poultry raisers denounced anew government claims that “deboned” meat is not “locally available” and dismissed misleading data that imports dropped in 2020 as Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) data showed it shot up 32% to 371%, including fully-finished whole chicken.

   The slowdown in import arrivals claimed by the Department of Agriculture (DA) in its website statement “Drop in poultry imports bodes well for local industry” is misleading.

   It was artificial as it was caused only by logistics problems due to the COVID 19 lockdown, showing a drop in imports volume from January to May.

   But newly-released actual BAI data showed cumulative imports from January to May 2020 of chicken cuts skyrocketed by a whopping 140.57% to 22,941 million kilos from only 9.536 million kilos in January to May in 2019.

   A perplexing data is the importation from the same period of whole chicken  at 545,406 kilos, a staggering 371.43% increase from last year.

   Imports of chicken leg quarters was at 43.445 million kilos for the first five months, a 45.21% increase.

   Total imported chicken products ballooned to 178.334 million kilos, an increase of 50.34% from 118.616 million kilos in the same period last year. 

   Imports of offals grew to 1.061 million kilos or by 32.97%.  Only fats and rind skin recorded decline in imports from January to May at 1.513 million kilos for fats, down by 11.68%.  Rind and skin dropped by 52.19% to 398,404 million kilos.

   Mechanically deboned meat (MDM) imports climbed to 108.428 million kilos, up by 45.21%.

Controversial “deboned” meat

   The importation of deboned meat is a major bone of contention as UBRA said in a fresh open letter to DA Secretary William D. Dar dated June 15, 2020 that this is available locally.

   Dar said earlier that DA and its attached BAI only allows importation of manufacturing inputs—mainly deboned meat–  for products needed by meat processors.

   But first, UBRA said in the letter that such chicken importation supposedly as “manufacturing input” has dragged down development of the poultry processing industry in the Philippines. The letter was signed by Lawyer Elias Jose Inciong, president, and Gregorio San Diego, chairman.

   Already, a major company has facilities to supply part of MDM requirements with assurance of quality.

   But instead of supporting MDM local production so as to develop the MDM industry and raise utilization of local chicken, DA-BAI has apparently supported imports.

   “The importation agenda and mindset prevented such a development.  There has been a significant increasing trend in both the total imports and the key composite items in the last five years.”

   It is a blatant attempt to distort the truth that DA and BAI refuse to accept that imports have threatened the industry and jobs of local farmers and poultry raisers.  That even as farmgate price of chicken collapsed to P30 per kilo during the COVID 19 lockdown.

   “BAI attempts to minimize the threat of imports by saying that 70% is MDM, fats, offals, and rind/skin used by industrial processors.”

Shutdown

   Worse, chicken imports in the past have already caused a shutdown of several broiler producers.

   Broiler producers Purefoods, RFM-Swift, General Milling, and Robina already closed due to losses.  Only San Miguel Corp. and Bounty Fresh have remained. 

   “Vitarich is back after suffering the ravages of importation and is now our member,” UBRA said.

   “This is the reason why we cannot accept the reasoning of DA especially BAI that imports are not threat much less a cause of the sufferings of the industry.  UBRA was born out of the struggle to survive such wrongheaded thinking.”  

Inaction

   Evidence of passive response and inaction of DA and BAI on serious concerns of poultry growers is so glaring.

    In an urgent situation as the COVID 19 crisis that sent poultry farmgate price to collapse down to P30 per kilo, it took DA and BAI to respond after three weeks just to call a meeting.  Its letter was on May 8; the meeting was on May 28.

   UBRA denied that a “miscommunication” between UBRA and BAI happened as a video of the meeting last May 28.

   “We never said that BAI gave an order to stop production. This is either a wicked spin by DA to muddle the public discourse or you were addressing other parties who have expressed their own sentiments.

   UBRA stressed DA and BAI’s pronouncements clearly sent a message to poultry producers to limit production.

   “We do not know how DA understands its recommendation to us that there should be “industry regulation on the level of production by each region or enterprise to prevent oversupply.” 

   “As chicken farmers, we understand this to mean as limiting our production to give way to imports as you feel helpless to stop it.”

Sacrificial lamb, technical smuggling

   The poultry sector has been sacrificed in the country’s attempt to protect the rice sector through Quantitative Restriction or QR (restricts volume of rice imports).  Tariff of MDM was offered (to WTO) to be cut to 5% for Philippines to retain the rice QR.

   Unfortunately, MDM is used in misdeclaration of products.

   Inciong and San Diego said Senate Committee Chairman Cynthia Villar supported UBRA’s plea for a suspension of imports upon finding out  MDM is a tool in technical smuggling.

   “Non-MDM items with tariffs of 40% were smuggled as were declared as MDM.  The committee also found that there was no assurance that MDM was being used properly.  The Food and Drug Administration said that the inclusion rate should only be 20%.  The National Meat Inspection Service stated that it was alright to use 40%. The processors answered that they were using it up to 80%.”

   UBRA wrote Villar a letter on May 17. The Senate office received evidence on technical smuggling from the Samahan ng Industriya ng Agrikultura .

Farmgate, retail price disconnect

   It is unfortunate that both DA and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) know the disconnect between retail prices and farmgate price of products.

   But they turn a blind eye in the knowledge that traders, not the farmers or consumers, enjoy the windfall profit, from low farmgate prices as these are not passed on to consumers.

   “Importers are happier if wholesale and retail prices are high because they will have more margins to pocket.”

Diseases

   UBRA also dismissed the position of BAI that they can only stop issuance of import permit if there are sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) questions or threat of disease from animal imports that may infect local industry.

   The truth is “African Swine Fever is not a homegrown disease but an imported one. It is a major failure of BAI.”

   It was even Manila Mayor Isko Moreno that led the interdiction of the entry of illegal poultry and pork products from CHIna.  It was not DA-BAI despite its mandate on meat quarantine.

   “These all happened because of the absence of quarantine facilities at the customs border.  Stakeholders have lobbied long for its construction not BAI,” they said.

Traders’ price manipulation

   Importers have gain control over prices.  Because of dumping of cheap imports, local producers are compelled to reduce and stop operations.

   When that happens, shortage occurs, and importers take advantage of the opportunity to raise prices. 

   “This is what happened in the 2003 after the Great Glut of 2002.  Aside from the financial damage, imports have been the source of diseases which have decimated livelihoods in the across the countryside.”

Importers’ manipulation

   The government, in its absence of devotion to local farm producers, has been made to believe by importers that they are indispensable in satisfying consumers’ demand for cheap poultry meat. 

It refuses to recognize the truth  that the huge volume of import is the reason why farmgate price of poultry collapsed during the COVID 19 lockdown down to P30 per kilo.

   “Importers have the habit of cherry-picking high retail prices through the years to prove that they are necessary and indispensable. Look at what will happen to the consumers without us? They are blatantly silent on the very low farmgate prices which they cause that damage stakeholders throughout the value chain.  From corn farmers to the wet markets.”

Passive

   DA’s passive stance on protecting local farmers have relegated DA and agriculture as a less important industry in the Philippines.

   “The issues we have raised are about fundamental policies and mindset. It goes beyond the poultry sector.  It is probably the reason why DA is not a priority in the national budget. The absence of plans and what the Jesuits call modo de proceder, a way of proceeding, that engenders confidence in the system is the cause why we have been left behind by our peers.”

   UBRA said that Philippines does not even have to resign from the World Trade Organization (WTO) to promote its local industry.

   “Other countries have managed to develop under its rules.  It’s just that the mindset and priorities of their agricultural authorities are not as screwed up as ours.”

   “The WTO commitments have become an excuse to feign helplessness and, worse, to push for the agenda of the importers.  This attitude is scandalous in its particular unfairness towards the broiler industry.”  

Other agenda

   These are other concerns reiterated by UBRA in its June 15 letter to DA:

1. UBRA affirmed the recommendation of Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto that there is a surplus in poultry.

 “All of the three projections point to a surplus. If such is the case, why encourage imports? Kung 136 percent hanggang 183 percent ang chicken sufficiency forecast, bakit mag-aangkat pa?” Recto said.

   UBRA said Recto’s question “crystallizes the plight of the broiler industry.”

   “The pervading mindset at the DA is that it is helpless in the face of our WTO free trade commitments. It has become the perpetual excuse to do nothing and just leave farmers and producers to be slaughtered by commodities from countries with heavily subsidized agricultural systems.”

•  UBRA has invoked a decision of  the late Senator Edgardo Angara, when he was DA secretary in 2000-2001, to suspend poultry imports upon knowing of dumping of these products.

   It was a time the poultry industry was at a “brink of collapse and had suffered enormous losses because of unfair competition from imports and smuggling.”

   “This was at the height of the ideological power of free trade as embodied by the WTO. An importer took him to court but the case did not prosper.  This is the reason why our members still vote for Senator Angara, the son, even though some of us are not always in agreement with him. We remember his late father.”

   Yet, present DA officials ignore these issues on huge trade subsidies and support of the US and other governments to their farmers.

     “Philippine agriculture has failed to flourish because the government has turned a blind eye to the subsidies and non-tariff barriers of developed countries.  The United States has had several Farm Bills to support both producers and consumers.  It is one of the reasons the Doha Development Round of the WTO failed.”

   Trade support is “anchored on the fundamental interests of the farmers and producers.”

    With full government budgetary and credit support, it has enabled “our peers in ASEAN to have successful agricultural sectors.”

   “Unfortunately for the Philippine broiler industry, after Senator Angara’s very brief tenure as Secretary, the importation agenda again dominated the policy landscape.” Melody Mendoza Aguiba

June 12, 2020

The Department of Agriculture (DA) was flooded Thursday by more petitions to stop chicken and pork importation, pleading this is the help farmers need most amid the “debilitating” COVID 19 crisis that threatens to render millions of Filipino jobless.

   In a joint statement, eight agriculture and related organizations appealed for DA and the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) to stop issuing import permits for chicken meat, pork, and processed products until the end of the year to allow poultry producers to survive. 

   Imports are causing a “ despicable” damage to “millions of Filipinos.

   “Allowing the importation of meat and limiting local production in this critical juncture will cause a stoppage in the operations of some farms.  Their production cannot be revived for another 12-18 months. One can just imagine the despicable damage this  could bring to millions of Filipinos reliant on the sector. We trust that this is not what the government wants,” according to the eight organizations.

   Signatory in the joint statement are Philippine Association of Feed Millers Inc. (Stephanie Nicole S. Garcia); Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines (Arch Edwin G. Chen); Philippine Maize Federation Inc. (Engr. Roger Navarro); Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (Danilo V. Fausto); United Broilers and Raisers Association (Lawyer Elias Jose Inciong); National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (Chester Warren Y. Tan); Philippine Eggboard Association Inc. (Irwin M. Ambal); and Philippine Veterinary Medical Association (Corazon P. Occidental).

   “Helping our local meat producers and raisers, including feed millers and even feed crop planters, dealers, merchants, transporters, workers, and helpers, is the necessary steps in mitigating the debilitating impact of COVID-19 on the agricultural economy,” they said.

   The groups’ appeal comes after DA Secretary William D. Dar’s pronouncement Thursday that neither DA, nor its attached Bureau of Animal Industry” did not ask the poultry sector to “stop production.”

   Rather, Dar said in a press briefing Thursday that government is only allowing importation of  deboned poultry products that cannot be produced by local farmers.  Such processed products are imported as manufacturing input of meat processors, DA said.  

   However, the poultry raisers said “there is an abundant supply of live and frozen meat” to cater to the national demand.

   “To give way to meat importation means aggravating the already devastating impact that the stringent lockdown measures have brought upon to the local ecosystem.”

   Even the hog raisers asked for a similar cessation in importation of other livestock products. 

   “We humbly request that this importation stoppage be undertaken for the rest of 2020 to facilitate healing of our industry.  We will do our best to support our employees who have been working doubly hard to guarantee the constant supply of food to the Filipino people amidst this pandemic. The stoppage must not only cover poultry products but also other products of the rest of the livestock industry,” the agriculture producers said.

   “Government would be able to promote nation rebuilding by allowing local meat production to continuously flourish. As the local industry regains growth, millions of workers and raisers would be provided with jobs and income security. This industry has been historically resilient. (But) it needs an enabling environment to stay strong and capable, and continue providing for the people.”

   Gregorio San Diego and Lawyer Elias Jose Inciong of UBRA said in an open letter to Dar that they were surprised that a BAI official has asked them to limit production “to give space” to imports.

   The groups committed to DA to produce what is needed by Filipino consumers— that at a “fair” price to help other businesses flourish.

   “With the regeneration of our local food supply and capacity, our joint industry associations commit to government that we will be able to supply and secure the food cycle of the whole country, as what we have done even during the ECQ period.”
   “We are also committing fair market prices products to help our fellow business owners and  consumers recover with us and fight this global pandemic. A true Bayanihan is uplifting too the Filipino industries to thrive and flourish in this critical time. Let us all heal and recover together by caring for the Philippine agricultural economy.” Melody Mendoza Aguiba

June 2020

The poultry sector has opposed  Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Animal Industry’s recommendation for more poultry imports as this “bizaare” policy is against upholding Filipino farmers’ welfare and is in contrast to President Rodrigo Duterte’s stance to boost local food production.

   It is strange that BAI is asking Filipino poultry producers to limit their production in order to “give way” to foreign producers.

   In an open letter to Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary William D. Dar, the United Broilers and Raisers’ Association (UBRA), supported by the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc (PCAFI), has dismissed the claim of BAI that poultry imports are too “minimal” to hurt Filipino producers. 

   BAI is an attached agency of DA.

   “Imports are not a ‘mere threat.’ But it has caused actual damage in the last 25 years. The volume of imports need not be overwhelming to cause damage.  It only takes a relatively minimal volume to move farmgate prices from profit to loss as agricultural products are commodities,” said UBRA.

   The open letter was signed by UBRA Chairman Gregorio San Diego and Lawyer Elias Jose M. Inciong, UBRA president.  San Diego and Inciong stressed the letter is for “information on the challenges involved in the reform of the (DA-BAI) system.”

   Private farm sector group PCAFI lamented that DA hardly listened to the voice of Filipino poultry raisers.

   “PCAFI fully supports the complaint sent to Secretary Dar which is apparently not taken with serious attention and without considering the plight of the poultry industry. Food production is the main focus of the economic managers to recover from COVID-19.  But the people of DA  recommendi the opposite in favor of foreign producers,” said PCAFI President Danilo V. Fausto.

   Even more ironic, DA is supporting foreign farmers that are fully supported by their governments.

   “Prices of imports are low because these come from countries with subsidized agricultural system.”

      The Foreign Agricultural Service of the United States DA placed Philippines’ poultry imports at an increasing rate from 320,000 metric tons (MT) in 2018 to 345,000 MT  in 2019, and 390,000 MT in 2020.

   UBRA and PCAFI officials were invited to a virtual meeting last June 4 by DA-BAI regarding meat supply with high expectation that their pleading for suspension of poultry imports will be supported.

   They petitioned last May 4  for the immediate suspension of imports of poultry meat and poultry products.

   Unfortunately, the virtual meeting turned to be extremely frustrating as BAI asked the local poultry raisers to “self regulateand limit local production.”

   “In the kindest possible terms, this is one of the most bizaare thinking that ever emanated from DA. The incongruence is glaring.  At a time when the secretary of DA, together with the economic managers, is encouraging local production, BAI is telling a key industry to limit  production in order to give space to imports,” said San Diego and Inciong.

   Oddly, while BAI intends to deprive local poultry raisers of a better market right in the Philippines, it suggests to Filipino poultry to rather explore “exports.”

   “It is disappointing, to say the least, that BAI is pretending to be unaware of the competitive international market dominated by the United States, Brazil, and Thailand.”

   BAI, together with the National Meat Inspection System (NMIS), has gained prominence in accrediting importers and foreign meat establishments as suppliers with alacrity.”

   BAI never at all presented any serious plan to support exports. 

   “For exports to happen, an ecosystem must be established with the cooperation of government, academe, and private sector.”

   The private farm associations believe DA should have more competent animal industry officials who have the compassion and empathy for the plight of Filipino poultry raisers.

   “If the grievance lodged by UBRA is not immediately acted upon, I think Secretary Dar should find somebody else who can implement his vision and action plan for Philippine agriculture and follow the direction of President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic managers,” said Fausto.

   These are the other reforms asserted by UBRA-PCAFI:

1. Urgent need for decentralization of functions at DA-BAI
2. Reformatting of systems to simplify collection of tariffs and duties and simplify its reporting
3. Address undervaluation through methods allowed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the regular comparison and publication of the composition and volume of exports.  This will compare data of BAI and Bureau of Customs.  This minimizes misdeclaration of products.
4. Conduct studies on trade remedies not only for poultry and livestock sector but the entire agriculture sector
5. Establish confidence in the trading of chicken meat by addressing alleged abuses in the implementation of Customs Bonded Warehouse 0% tariff privileges.  BAI and NMIS have not presented data on this for many years.
6. Implement the Cold Chain-Ready Quarantine Facilities at Customs Border so that inspection can be done before the payment of tariffs and duties.  The  so called Second Border is a failure as it is a sham. The system is below international standards and has caused entry of diseases such as African swine flu, bird flu, and the smuggling of prohibited products like poultry products of China.
7. Support for the corn sector and access to affordable yellow corn and feeds when there are no corn harvests. This is also to support poultry and livestock sectors that depends largely on feed for competitiveness.
8. Address disconnect between farmgate and retail price through strict enforcement of the Price Act and a consumer subsidy program similar to that in the United States Farm Bill.

   “The need for reforms in DA and BAI is acute.  These reforms have never been more urgent than in the time of COVID 19.  These will assure stakeholders in the agriculture and fisheries sector that they will at last be given the chance to succeed and make a difference in the lives of people,” said San Diego and Inciong. Melody Mendoza Aguiba