Cordillera Vegetable Growers Want RP Out of GATT 

Organized farmers in Cordillera want the Philippines out of GATT immediately. Vegetable imports are killing the local vegetable industry and the “vegetable salad capital” fame of Benguet  province may yet become a closed chapter in Philippine agriculture, they say.

BY Bulatlat.com

BAGUIO CITY - Farmers in La Trinidad and other Benguet towns in northern Philippines want the Arroyo administration to get the country out of GATT quickly. Otherwise, they said, the “vegetable salad capital” fame Benguet province has been known for decades will be a thing of the past.

Prices of cabbages, carrots and other vegetables that are popularly grown in Benguet and shipped to Metro Manila and other urban centers have fallen over the past weeks and farmers speculate of a dire future not only for the industry but also for their families.

Other reports reveal however that import liberalization has allowed vegetables from other countries including China to be dumped illegally in the country, further aggravating the situation of vegetable growers.

Lulu A. Gimenez, information and education officer of Apit Tako, over the weekend said the crisis is so different from earlier times when, even during rainy season, producers would pocket as much as P50,000 for a mere half-hectare’s harvest. “The past weeks' depression in the prices of highland vegetables is thus abnormal,” she said.

Apit Tako, an alliance of Cordillera peasants, is affiliated with the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement in the Philippines).

Last week, a newspaper reported Elizabeth Agpad-Verzola, director of the Department of Agriculture-Cordillera, as blaming the country’s membership in the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) for the abnormality.

Benguet Gov. Raul Molintas was also reportedly alarmed by the “illegal” importation of carrots from China. The carrots were originally intended for Japan but were diverted to the Philippines, he said.

Since last month when vegetable imports started swamping Metro Manila outlets such as Divisoria and supermarkets, Benguet farmers have reportedly lost some P3.6 million. Some farmers and trading post stall owners in La Trinidad have also been forced to close shop. They said they could not keep up with the high rentals due to market losses.

La Trinidad Mayo Nestor Fongwan also said carrot orders from Metro Manila have either stopped or decreased. Imported carrots sell cheaper than local varieties causing traders and dealers to shift to the imported variety.

Protection

Gimenez said that before the Philippines signed GATT in 1994, potatoes and cabbages were among the last few vegetables that enjoyed protection from foreign competition. Under the GATT-WTO, however, import restrictions were removed, and the tariffs were reduced steadily. The Tariffs and Customs Code of 1998 reduced Philippine tariffs on imported potatoes to as low as 10% and those for cabbages to 30% by 2000, making importation of these highland vegetables cheap.

And it has become cheaper for big businessmen to import highland vegetables from China, Taiwan, and Australia than to buy the same from the Cordillera, Gimenez added.

The low prices of vegetable imports stem from the efficient production and distribution of vegetables in these countries. There, the Apit Tako officer said, farm machinery, seeds, and agrochemical inputs are highly developed and easily accessible; they are locally produced and thus affordable to farmers. Packing is also highly mechanized.

On the other hand, Cordillera and other vegetable-producing regions have mostly farm-to-nowhere roads. There are no storage facilities and packing and transporting are done manually. Machinery and agro-inputs are imported and highly expensive.

Aside from these, profiteering and usury increase production costs.

 “Our vegetable-producing peasants are greatly disadvantaged vis-à-vis the modern farmers of better-developed countries,” Gimenez said. “And by opening our domestic market to the agricultural products of these countries, government has forced our peasants into a competition which they cannot possibly win.”

Yet another prospective victim of the vegetable imports is the Carrot Cake Festival that usually highlights Benguet Day in November. The fest, officials and organizers say, is a thanksgiving for the bountiful harvest and good economy from the carrot produce of Benguet and its vegetable industry.

Whether there will be enough carrots to make the cake fest a success is now a big question. With a report by Ace Alegre/Bulatlat.com

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