FARMER’s groups said Sunday that the government needs to enforce the law on quarantine and other inspections at the ports for imported animal and plant products to deter smuggling.
The government has failed to set up so-called first border facilities at various ports as required by law, at which imported agricultural products are to be inspected.
Because of the lack of such facilities, imported goods, including smuggled ones, are only examined at cold storage facilities once they leave the major seaports, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) Executive Director Jayson H. Cainglet told BusinessWorld in a text message.
“What they are currently doing is merely opening and closing the container van,” he said. “Funds were already allotted since 2019 for the establishment of the first border inspection facilities; and yet, not a single inspection facility was established, contrary to the provisions of RA 10611, or the Food Safety Law of 2013.”
Mr. Cainglet also noted that Republic Act 10611 requires 100% inspection at the first port of entry.
“We are the only country that is not applying the global standard of quarantine inspection at the port of first entry of any imported food, food products, and agricultural commodity to ensure food safety and public health security; and avert wanton smuggling of agricultural products,” he said.
Raul Q. Montemayor, Federation of Free Farmers national manager, said in a Viber message to BusinessWorld that most of the time, smuggled goods are tracked only after they have left the ports. “We need an effective monitoring system that flags suspicious shipments, then a good detection system at the ports.”
In November, the Agriculture department signed a Memorandum of Agreement to establish the country’s first Cold Examination Facility in Agriculture (CEFA) at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
As a first border facility, the CEFA located at a 2,000-square meter site in Subic Freeport, will be equipped to inspect containerized agri-fishery commodities, while X-ray screening will be conducted by the Bureau of Customs (BoC).
“It is just a ceremonial signing of SBMA allotting them an area for the first border quarantine facility,” said Mr. Cainglet. “As of today, (there is) no construction taking place.”
“I think the number one loophole that needs to be addressed, for us, is (the lack of) a clear cut discussion on the need for a first border examination area for agriculture products especially for reefer containers,” Vincent Philip C. Maronilla, BoC assistant commissioner heading the Post Clearance Audit Group, told BusinessWorld via phone.
There is a risk when the products only undergo (X-ray inspection) after they are transferred to the cold storage warehouse for examination, he said.
At present, Mr. Maronilla said that the Agriculture department has been allowed to station personnel at BoC X-ray areas to “allow them the opportunity to flag certain containers that they feel might be being used as a way to misdeclare or bring in these smuggled agricultural products.”
Agriculture department Spokesman Noel O. Reyes did not immediately respond to a Viber message seeking comment.
The customs commissioner said advanced inspection methods still involve a risk of smuggling, so the only way to apprehend smugglers is beyond the borders.
Between 2019 and Oct. 2021, 47 cases of smuggling of agricultural goods have been filed, involving 158 individuals, importers, and customs brokers, according to data provided by the agency. Mr. Maronilla did not say how many cases led to convictions.
Smugglers are “emboldened” since none of them have been sent to jail, Mr. Cainglet said, which makes being charged “meaningless.”
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said that the continued prevalence of farm goods smuggling undercuts domestic producers.
“This could undercut the prices of locally produced vegetables, (and) could weigh on both prices and incomes of vegetable farmers,” he told BusinessWorld via Viber.
This could potentially reduce output or area planted to the smuggled crop, he said, citing a scenario under which farmers “incur losses or earn below breakeven if smuggled vegetables unduly reduce prices, especially during the harvest season.”
The government, he added, could also lose tariff revenue from smuggling.
Asian Institute of Management economist John Paolo R. Rivera said that smuggled goods compete with the agricultural sector, adding to the hardships of farmers and producers.
“It undermines our agriculture sector which is an essential sector of our economy during the pandemic,” he said in a Viber message. “It also poses a threat to sanitation because we don’t know what foreign elements these smuggled products bring that threaten national health, sanitation, and security.”
Agriculture Secretary Willian D. Dar has said that the public needs to be wary of smuggled vegetables due to the uncertainty over how they were treated with pesticides and preservatives.
The government should focus on supporting vegetable producers, think of ways to support farmers, and control or stop smuggling, Antonio A. Ligon, law and business professor at De La Salle University, said in a Viber message to BusinessWorld.
If this continues and produce growers are crowded out, it could lead to increased dependence on imports Mr. Ricafort said, which would be “inimical to the country’s food security over the long-term.”
The Senate on Tuesday will investigate the matter after vegetable dealers in the La Trinidad Valley, Benguet, wrote about their concerns to Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III. — Alyssa Nicole O. Tan