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As a result of the worldwide scare from melamine in China-made milk
products, local milk producers might lower their prices by about 10
percent to 20 percent, the government said Thursday.
According to Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya of
the Department of Trade and Industry, the agency already had noticed
a drop in prices of milk in supermarkets.
She said the Trade department, meanwhile,
expects bread prices to remain stable for the rest of the year.
Maglaya added that the department also noticed a
decline in prices of flour and wheat and that it does not see
adjustments in price movements of the two commodities.
The Trade undersecretary said the department is
also looking at further reduction in prices of flour as the
Christmas season approaches.
President Gloria Arroyo inspected Liana’s
grocery in Pasay City on Thursday and also went to Save More
supermarket in the Nagtahan area in Manila’s Sta. Mesa district
and talked to shoppers and storekeepers there.
As of Wednesday, the Bureau of Food and Drugs
had ordered the pullout from the market of three China-made milk
products—Yili, Mengniu and Jolly Cow Slender Low Fat Milk—that
it found to be contaminated with melamine.
Melamine, an industrial chemical used in making
plastics, can cause kidney failure. It was blamed for causing the
death of four children in China and making ill more than 50,000
other children.
The danger it poses to the Philippines could be
faced by a stronger local dairy industry, according to a former
Agriculture secretary.
Opportunity for locals
Leonardo Montemayor also on Thursday said the
government could strengthen the industry by investing in it P500
million a year.
“Our dairy industry lacks resources and
funding support from the government is needed,” he added.
Montemayor said the budget of the Department of
Agriculture should be diversified, not just concentrated on the
rice-sufficiency program.
He suggested that the government purchase cows
from milk-producing countries every year. An imported cow costs
P70,000, Montemayor said.
The former Agriculture chief and now president
of the Federation of Free Farmers also urged the government to
increase the current 3-percent milk tariff in the country to 10
percent to protect local producers of cow’s milk.
Montemayor said 99 percent of the supply of milk
and dairy products in the Philippines are imported from top
milk-producing countries and only 1 percent comes from the local
producers.
He added that imported milk and dairy products
cost the country $500 million to $600 million a year.
To fend off further possible danger from
melamine-tainted milk products from China, the Bureau of Customs
also on Thursday started reviewing importations of China-made milk
and dairy products that entered the country from January to
September 22 this year.
In a memorandum, Customs Commissioner Napoleon
Morales ordered Customs district collectors to account for all
imports of milk products from China and check if the shipments
carried authorization from the Bureau of Food and Drugs.
-- Angelo S. Samonte, Ira Karen Apanay And Anthony Vargas
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