Mindano fruit growers want DA to liberalize agro-chemical trade

DAVAO CITY – Mindanao fruit producers are asking the Department of Agriculture (DA) to liberalize the importation of agro-chemical products.

Antonio Partoza, president of the Mindanao Fruit Industry Development Council, (Minfruit Council) said the competitiveness of fruit growers in the region are being undermined by the "outrageously exorbitant" prices of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, a major component of their production costs.

"A price survey was done by one of our Minfruit members a few months ago and we were shocked to find out that agro-chemical prices in Davao are twice and in some cases up to 20 times more expensive than in other countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and China," said Partoza.

Partoza, who spoke at the recent Mindanao Food Congress supported by the USAID-funded Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) program, said the soaring prices are the result of a highly-regulated environment covering the importation, as well as local manufacturing and distribution of agro-chemical products.

"This has given rise to an oligopolistic situation in the market where healthy competition is virtually eliminated," said Partoza.

The Minfruit Council, aside from urging the DA to liberalize imports of agro-chemicals, is also asking the state-run Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) for a direct bulk importation of the most-frequently used agro-chemical products.

"This should make them more affordable to end-users," said Partoza.

Aside from expensive input costs, fruit growers in Mindanao are also hurting from high shipment costs. "The average airfreight to bring fresh mango from Davao to Manila is about P18 per kilo. This is often more expensive than the farmgate price of the fruit being shipped. Domestic shipping rates are also very high. Shipping a 20-foot dry container from Cagayan de Oro to Manila is about P32,000 while the cost of sending the same container from Manila to Hongkong is just $300 or about P16,500," noted Partoza.

The Minfruit Council represents small grower-based fruit cooperatives and associations in Mindanao with 36 Mindanao-based fruit organizations comprising some 1,500 fruit growers. Its members produce mangoes, durian, native bananas, lanzones, mangosteen, pomelo, calamansi, papaya and other tropical fruits.