EDITORIAL - Vegetable smuggling

With the start of the so-called ’ber months, consumption is expected to begin rising, even with the COVID pandemic still raging. Instead, farmers and dealers in Benguet’s agriculture center, the town of La Trinidad, are complaining that demand for vegetables is drastically down.

Initially, pandemic mobility restrictions were seen as the possible culprit. Instead the problem was traced to the flood of smuggled carrots and other vegetables. A House resolution seeking a probe into the problem said the smuggled vegetables were flooding not only markets in Metro Manila but also Cebu and Cagayan de Oro.

House Resolution 2263 noted that the smuggled vegetables were reportedly kept in cold storage at warehouses in Manila’s Divisoria commercial district, and then released into the market when prices of crops from Benguet spiked. In Cebu, four shipping containers of smuggled carrots from China are reportedly being released weekly into the market. Benguet vegetable dealers are worried about reports that after the flood of carrots, smuggled broccoli and cauliflower would be released into the market.

A similar probe is being sought at the Senate, with the warning that smuggled agricultural products could contain invasive pests and pathogens harmful to livestock and even humans. Senators are blaming smuggled pork from China for the outbreak of African swine fever in the Philippines, which is still ravaging hog farms in several areas in the country.

It is not the first time that local farmers have faced unfair competition from smuggled crops. Smuggled onions, for example, keep popping up in markets across the country. In May 2016, the country passed the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act. Republic Act 10845 declares large-scale agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage. RA 10845 aims to protect farmers and agricultural enterprises from unfair competition posed by smugglers.

In preventing such illegal activities, the law also aims to boost agricultural productivity. The proliferation of smuggled vegetables, even with a deadly pandemic raging, shows that like many laws in this country, there is a wide gap between the avowed objectives of RA 10845 and its implementation.