Agri stakeholders call on gov’t to intensify drive vs agri-smuggling

Agriculture stakeholders are calling on the government to intensify its drive against agricultural smuggling in the country as it affects both producers and consumers.

In a statement, the United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA) and Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) voiced concerns over the continued proliferation of agricultural smuggling.

In particular, UBRA chairman Gregorio San Diego said the importation and smuggling are responsible for reduced local chicken production.

“Smuggling, especially what we are seeing now being done openly without anyone being caught discourages local producers to the maximum,” San Diego said.

For his part, SINAG president Rosendo So said that misdeclaration and outright smuggling continues to enter the country.

So said over the past six to eight weeks SINAG has been joining the counter intelligence team of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in various entry ports such as in Manila and Subic.

He said that operations lead to the discovery of agricultural products being smuggled into the Philippines and data on the total volume of smuggled agricultural goods remain to be vague and incomplete given its illegal entry.

The SINAG chief said, however, that about 10% to 30% more of what usually are being reported as imports every year are smuggled.

This means that for every one million declared imports of various agricultural commodities, at least 100,000 and as much as 300,000 more are smuggled.

“The problem is that CMTA (Customs Modernization and Tariff Act) is the one being filed and not the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Law which is non-bailable,” So said.

“There should be people to be jailed for Anti-Agriculture Smuggling. Reports are meaningless unless they are actually imprisoned,” he added.

So stressed the need for the first border inspection to be in place in order to stop smuggling.

The SINAG chief added that smuggled goods pose a risk to consumers and could also endanger the local agriculture sector as they may be carriers of transboundary diseases since such products arrived without the necessary permits.

“Every time smuggled goods are sold in the market, it does not pass through proper recording,” So said.

“If these continue to come in, this will affect our local production. This will affect our food security and food safety of our consumers,” he said.

San Diego, meanwhile, expressed dismay over the efforts to stop smuggling in the country, saying the situation just gets worse and worse.

“With the simple problem of onion prices and supply not being solved up to now, how can you be optimistic?” he asked.

With the current challenges hounding the agriculture sector, San Diego emphasized the need to finally appoint a point person in the department.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. concurrently sits as the Agriculture chief.

“Appoint a permanent and responsible DA secretary who will consult and listen to stakeholders of the whole agri sectors on how to help Filipino farmers seriously,” San Diego said.

Last year, the BOC conducted 107 seizures of agricultural products worth P1.23 billion.

This is just part of the larger 671 total seizures of smuggled goods valued at P23.58 billion since January 2022.

Agricultural smuggling remains rampant in the country and this affects locally produced farm products since these cannot compete with illegally imported ones due to pricing, according to SINAG and UBRA.—AOL, GMA Integrated News