Villar urges more safety nets vs veggies from China, Taiwan

Sen. Manny Villar called yesterday for the immediate imposition of safety nets to help the country’s vegetable farmers cope with the rash of imports from China and Taiwan.

Villar, chairman of the Senate committee on agriculture, issued the call following a STAR report that Benguet vegetable farmers are reeling from the flood of vegetables from Taiwan and China.

The report said Metro Manila vegetable dealers have stopped buying carrots, potatoes, cabbage, cucumber and lettuce from Benguet in favor of the cheaper products from Taiwan and China.

Villar said that vegetables from Taiwan and China are subsidized by their government, so they could be sold at a much lower price.

Benguet, the country’s "Salad Bowl," used to supply 85 percent of such vegetables to Metro Manila.

Villar said that the entry of imported vegetables is the result of the opening up of the country’s market due to its commitments to an international trade treaty.

"While we must honor our international trade commitments, this does not mean sacrificing the interest of local farmers whose livelihood will be affected," he stressed. "Liberalized trade must not mean the death of our own industries.

Villar urged appropriate government agencies to look into ways to assist local industries, aside from the strict implementation of existing laws such as the Countervailing Duties, Anti-Dumping Duties, and the Safeguard Measures Act.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor has reportedly directed the Bureau of Plant Industry and the Agri-Business Marketing Assistance Services (AMAS) to coordinate with Benguet officials to form a task force to monitor the importation of vegetables, especially carrots.

AMAS Director Salvador Salacup admitted that while their records show a limited volume of vegetables being imported in July and August, there were shipments of vegetables that entered the country illegally and found their way into the local market.

Salacup said they checked the Divisoria and other bagsakan areas and confirmed that the imported carrots were selling at P16 per kilo, against the local produce’s P35 to P40 a kilo.

Lolita Tiago, a grower-dealer from Natubleng, Benguet, said that because of the illegal importation of carrots, their sales had gone down from 10 tons to one ton a day.

Montemayor said that the vegetables from China or Taiwan might have been intended for Japan and other Asian markets, but were diverted to Manila when news about the closure of Halsema during recent typhoons was reported. – Efren Danao, Artemio Dumlao