Abono welcomes inquiry on approval of P2.32-B poultry project

URDANETA CITY, Philippines– The Pangasinan-based Abono party-list has welcomed  the House of Representatives inquiry on the Board of Investments (BOI)’s approval of a P2.32-billion integrated poultry project with incentives to Thai firm Charoen Pokphand Foods Philippines Corp.

Rosendo So, Abono chairman and Swine Development Council director, said he was invited to the Dec. 4 investigation of the special committee on food security and the committee on food and agriculture.

In a privilege speech on Nov. 28, Butil Rep. Agapito Guanlao said he was saddened that the BOI prefers to protect a foreign investor to directly compete with a struggling local hog and poultry industry.

He is angry that while the Department of Agriculture is doing its best to protect and revive the local hog and poultry industry, the BOI is putting the industry in a deadly quicksand, he added.

So said the BOI did not consult stakeholders of the poultry industry in granting a permit to Charoen, whose activity will negatively impact on local producers of poultry products.

The foreign-owned poultry farms are projected to produce up to 21,847 metric tons of poultry products annually once operations begin in 2013.

The BOI has granted Charoen a permit to raise hog parent stocks and to slaughter hogs, he added.

Charoen will have a parent stock capacity of 25,450 heads and 3,650 tons to slaughter hogs once the project starts commercial operations next year, he added.

So said that the BOI should have considered that poultry and hog operations of Charoen will be in direct competition with local meat production.

He agrees with Guanlao that the granting of a seven-year tax holiday and duty-free importation of raw materials to a foreign investor puts the local hog and poultry farmers in a disadvantageous position, he added.

So said the BOI’s grant of a seven-year tax holiday and the duty-free importation of raw materials contradicts the government’s drive to increase government revenues to fund projects to provide more jobs and food for the people.

“While the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) has been busy taxing everything and everybody to the point of taxing even the Christmas bonuses of the workers, here now comes the BOI granting a seven-year tax holiday and duty-free importation of raw materials to Charoen Pokphand,” he said.

Agricultural Sector Alliance of the Philippines Rep. Nicanor Briones questioned the pioneer status extended to Charoen Pokphand (CP).

“I cannot understand why the BOI gave CP a tax holiday,” he said.

“Its project is not pioneering. It is unfair to the domestic poultry and hog farmers. I am against the incentives given because there is a possibility that it would eventually kill our domestic industry.”

Daniel Javellana Jr., National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. chairman, said domestic players are ready to take up the BOI’s challenge and test whether the policy for incentives will be extended fairly to both foreign and local companies.

“We just want a level playing field,” he said.

“To do otherwise would be un-Filipino and would betray their biases. So we will ask for the same incentives they gave to CP. If they are able to extend tax breaks and exemptions to foreign companies, they should also be able to do so to local hog and poultry growers.” – With Paolo Romero