Correct Market System! Yes, Filipino Farmers Could Be Competitive!

Every time I hear people say that there is a need to import agricultural goods because our farmers’ prices are not competitive, I feel this urge of dragging them by their neckties to the countryside to make them understand realities on the ground.
At peak harvest season, Carrots in the vegetable production area of Bukidnon, home province of Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, is bought by traders at only P10 per kilo.
During the squash or calabasa harvest season, the price per kilo in Sultan Kudarat Province is P5 while Bulb Onion produced by Mindoro farmers is bought by traders for as low as P12 per kilo at peak harvest season.
Now tell me, are these farm gate prices not competitive enough?
Of course, they are.
The “lack of competitiveness” of our agricultural products is the result of the incorrigible mindset of our Economic Managers that “free market” is the best system to stabilize supply and prices.
They refuse to understand that the Philippines is not like any other agricultural country where the farms are linked to the markets with reliable infrastructure.
Our country is geographically fragmented making it a fertile ground for market manipulators to thrive, sometimes 8 to 10 tiers of middlemen and traders between the farm gate and the kitchen of the Filipino families.
That explains why the P12 per kilo Mindoro Onion is sold for P700 during the Christmas season by members of the cartel or Carrots priced at over P100 when farmers only earn P10.
What is needed is to correct the flawed and manipulative marketing system by getting government into play, not to control the trading but to provide balance.
My advocacy to cut the tiers of middlemen and traders separating farmers from consumers started when I was Governor and all these years, varying proofs of concept had largely been successful but were not institutionalized..
I still hold on to this belief that government should revive the Food Terminal Inc. which would buy direct from farmers the basic food commodities needed by Filipino consumers.
These basic food items – rice, meat, vegetables, fruits and other kitchen needs – could be sold in FTI outlets at prices a little higher than the farm gate prices.
With a fixed buying price, farmers will be enticed to produce more thus increasing productivity while consumers, knowing that they have access to affordable food items, could easily survive the soaring food inflation.
Simple, right?
The sad thing is that “Brilliant Minds,” more often than not, are too obsessed with complex theories rather than simple solutions.
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
#KungGustoMaramingParaan!
(Photos were taken by the Mindanao Development Authority Media Team in Talakag, Bukidnon.)