PBBM has been talking about food security he began his campaign for the Presidency. He’s still talking about it now. In fact, his first stop on his first working day was the Department of Agriculture, which he also heads in a concurrent capacity.
He talks of reestablishing the value chain of agriculture from farm-to-market. Our food costs are high for two reasons; traders are in between the farmers and the market and our transport infrastructure is poor. Post-harvest facilities is also an issue but becomes inconsequential because the urban poor literally live hand-to-mouth, which is why there is always the talipapa to buy the food to be cooked for the next meal. This precludes the sale of frozen products because you need to have a good-sized refrigerator/freezer to begin with.
Just to give you an idea, the fishermen who operate in Palawan are actually Cebuanos from Baring Island. The financiers in the Puerto Princesa fishing port advance monies to these fishermen every February before the start of the fishing season in March, when the winds shift from amihan to habagat.
The advances are liquidated by installment each time the fishermen return with their catch from waters farther than Kalayaan Island. Their catch is varied. There are fish, cuttelfish, octopus, shark, whatever is saleable in the markets.
A portion of the catch is sold in the local market, particularly those high-value items bought by exporters for processing, through their buying stations. A portion goes to the local market; products whose quality is not good enough for shipment to Manila.
Product shipped to Manila is handled by the consignacions in Navotas and Malabon. It is not an outright purchase. The consignacions handle the sales for the shipper in Puerto Princesa. It gets a percentage of the sales as commission. Expenses such as ice and handling are deducted from the sales. This is where the fishmongers who have stalls in the wet markets flock to buy fish and other marine products for sale.
Twenty to twenty-five percent of the retail price is made up of the cost and the margins of the traders. The products are shipped using a 40 x 40 or 40 x 80 trading box, depending on the volume available. Backloading the boxes for return shipment to Puerto Princesa is also for the account of the shipper.
The Food Terminal Complex was established by the NFA under Apo Lakay to be the central distribution point of food products for what was then the Greater Manila Area. It had a central cold storage, refrigeration, processing and freezing facilities for the use of locators. It was situated in Taguig to be near the PNR rail line.
After 1986, there was confusion as to its mandate and it became the hub of small exporters who didn’t have the capital to put up their own processing, freezing and storage facilities. The stalls were rented out and became processing facilities when they were actually meant for the use of wholesalers from the provinces.
During the second Aquino administration, the larger part of the FTI was sold to the Ayala group to be turned into a mixed-use development. This marked the end of a good project turned bad just because the first Aquino administration discarded all policies and plans under the first Marcos administration.
In the past years, we have seen in the news vegetables being left to rot because of oversupply or a price crash due to imports. Farmers are left holding the proverbial bag for their losses.
There is no quick solution to a problem which needs a long-term development plan but for PBBM to be able to address it in the short-term will need government intervention.
Our fishing industry is antiquated. Fishermen still employ the large bancas powered by dual Isuzu truck engines with outriggers. This is what is being utilized in Palawan, Zamboanga and General Santos. The same is true with the purse seiners in Navotas but I don’t think the Navotas magnates even operate these vessels as they are into imports since my time in the industry in the 90s.
Aquaculture is a capital-intensive proposition even if we have the coastlines for it. Gone are the days when extensive ponds were still viable but the other option is for fish species which grow in brackish or freshwater environments.
Logistics is another stumbling block. Any oil price increase is immediately factored in the cost of goods because of transport costs. Livestock and fish require both sea and land transport from farm-to-market. Rail is actually the cheapest option in transporting bulk cargo but our rail lines will only become operational again by 2025 at the earliest and this is only for northern and southern Luzon.
PBBM badly needs the modern day version of Jesus Tanchanco Sr., who headed the NFA and was Minister of Food during Marcos Sr.’s administration. It was Tanchanco who kept the agriculture cartels on a tight leash aided by their members fear of Marcos Sr. and resulted in food prices being maintained at reasonable levels, even during the crisis years of 1983 – 1986.
Perhaps the best move for PBBM is to call for a food summit so the public and private sector can dialogue and mitigate the food inflation which is affecting the greater majority of Filipinos today and obtain inputs for a long-term agriculture development plan.
While oil prices may be coming down due to the impending recession, it can easily climb back up again if it doesn’t impact China heavily. There is also the need to take climate change into account and the modernization of agriculture is not only dependent on modern equipment for mechanization but also on research and development and technology for monitoring purposes.
Our problems in food and energy security are the result of misgovernance for the past thirty years from 1986 – 2016. It will not be solved with one snap of the fingers but also requires political structural reforms. We cannot afford to be changing administration’s every six years. We need more focus on regional development initiatives and investments in food manufacturing in order to cut our dependence on imports.
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