THE Department of Agriculture (DA)  and private sectors have agreed to forge a program on how to protect local agriculture from the threats to local industry by Thai food conglomerate, Charoen Pokphand (CP).

In his keynote address during the sixth multi-sector agriculture summit on Friday, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala underscored that the entry of the firm threatens to cause financial ruin to hundreds of backyard farmers and feed suppliers.

Alcala, who is challenging the validity of providing incentives to Charoen Pokphand, added that even without the entry of a foreign firm “food self-sufficiency program is still attainable.”

“This is a wake-up call to come up with united stand against the giant food conglomerate,” Alcala said, as he pointed out that any incentives granted to the foreign firm should be offset by similar incentives to local growers.

“The fight is not yet over. The position of DA is behind the position of the local industry to livestock raisers,” Alcala said.

“Dapat din bigyan ng incentives ang local growers [Incentives must also be given to local growers],” he added, as he renewed calls to rationalize tariffs on offals to “to lower the margin of those engaged in smuggling.”

For his part, chairman Rosendo So of Abono party-azlist warned that the survival of the Philippine agriculture industry is again being seriously threatened by the entry of global food conglomerates, a policy direction that would not only annihilate local farm producers, but also gravely affect the country’s food security, if not restricted.

He stressed that demands for the revocation of the incentives granted to Charoen Pokphand, and the need for a more effective antismuggling campaign must be addressed by the government squarely.

“These two issues are our biggest concerns, although for hog and poultry producers, the incentives granted by the BOI [Board of Incentives] to Charoen Pokphand cause us our biggest headaches,” So, also director of Swine Development Council, lamented.

Tax holiday
Domestic meat growers were alarmed that seven-year tax holiday granted to Charoen, along with a percent incentive for the importation of corn and other raw feed materials would kill the domestic industry.

So said that their concerns are also shared by Alcala, who was bypassed by the Board of Incentives in its decision to grant pioneering status to the Thai firm.

“We want the government to be more forthright with us: do they want local producers to close shop? Or do they want us to continue with our business?” he asked.

“The government is targeting food self-sufficiency, but their policies are killing domestic producers.

That is illogical. Do we want to leave the fate of our food security to a foreign country?” So said.

The seriousness of these problems prompted some 300 agriculture industry leaders to call on the government to immediately revoke the incentives granted to Thai firm Charoen Pokphand to save local producers from closing shop because of the preferential treatment given by the Board of Incentives to foreign companies.

In a show of force, some 300 agriculture stakeholders adopted a resolution denouncing the “national government’s incoherent policy direction on agriculture” during the summit.