On Friday June 12th, the House Committee on Agriculture and Food announced it will conduct a probe in aid of legislation into the state of the poultry industry in the Philippines. The driving force behind this investigation was due to the Bureau of Animal Industry’s (BAI) pronouncement that it would impose limits on local poultry production.
Ako Bicol Partylist (AKB) Rep. Elizaldy S. Co urged Agriculture Secretary William Dar to hold responsible any BAI official that disregarded local production in favor of imports.
Co was among the lawmakers who challenged BAI's statement calling for local poultry farmers to limit production, to allow importers a greater share of the market.
“The poultry producers deserve to be heard and be assured that the government is doing its share to combat the problem arising from high levels of importation of poultry’s products, while we are experiencing an oversupply of broilers in the market,” said Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga, chairman of the agriculture and food panel.
The lawmaker has called for Philippine’s importation policies, monitoring and control to come under review, while also highlighting the immediate stopping of smuggling, illegal imports, unfair trade practices, and the timing of government action related to its poultry products importation. Co also expressed that supporting imports is "anti-Filipino".
“It’s like rubbing salt to the wounds of local poultry raisers facing the grim specter of bankruptcy and business closures amidst the COVID-19 pandemic,” he continued.
Co, a member of the House Committee on Poverty Alleviation, noted that the chicken importation has already saturated the local market, coming in from unknown foreign sources which could pose health hazards to consumers and threaten long-term food security.
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He urged Agriculture Secretary to look into the justification of BAI officials for their stance against local producers, as he believes that they failed to show any evidence of overpricing or local supply shortages that could remotely justify increasing imports.
“Even at the start of the Luzon-wide lockdown, chicken prices have fallen to precariously low levels of P60 to P70 (peso) per kilo which is unsustainable. Thus, allowing more imports at a time of local oversupply is both shady and unpatriotic,” Co said.
“I agree with Atty. Bong Inciong that unbridled importation has caused so much damage to the poultry industry in the last 25 years. It’s true that the volume of imports need not be overwhelming to cause damage. We’ve seen how it depressed prices to unsustainable levels,” he said.
