Global Shortage’s Effects Can be Mitigated by Agricultural Empowerment in the Philippines

Due to multiple stressors such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine-Russia war, and inflation as a whole, the entire world has been experiencing an onslaught of rising prices of many different commodities such as gas, essential food products, and even cooking oil. This has led to multiple nations banning exports of their prime domestic resources to safeguard their citizens first.

Last Monday, the Malaysian government and its minister of agriculture and food industries met with Malaysia’s top livestock producers to push for an export ban of chicken to ease their domestic prices as the entire world has been battling rising food costs. Starting June 1, Malaysia will be halting its export of 3.6 million chickens monthly. This export ban is predicted to mostly affect Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Japan, and Hong Kong.

Selena Ling, head of treasury research & strategy at OCBC Bank in Singapore says, “If the disruption to chicken supply is temporary, then it may be manageable,” Ling also adds, “But if it’s persistent and more worryingly, reflective of more protectionist measures by other countries over food security and inflation concerns, then this could be a lose-lose scenario for everyone.”

Last April 22, the world’s biggest palm oil producer, Indonesia has also announced an export ban on all its palm oil products to ensure better availability of the country’s commodities to Indonesians first. This led to a lift in the prices of all other edible oils such as soy oil, sunflower oil, and rapeseed oil. Palm oil is used for various purposes from food and pastries, cooking oils, cosmetics, and personal care up to cleaning products. Indonesia accounts for about a third of the world’s total vegetable oil exports. “Indonesia’s decision affects not only palm oil availability but vegetable oils worldwide,” says James Fry, the chairman of commodities consultancy LMC International.

These countries could not really be blamed for resorting to food protectionism as a way of prioritizing their countrymen before all others, so a way for us Filipinos to mitigate the effects of these global shortages and export bans is to push for agricultural empowerment and initiatives in the Philippines.

According to the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc (PCAFI)’s president Danilo Fausto, the next administration should increase its budget for the Department of Agriculture, as well as push the government to make agriculture its top priority. “Agriculture is given second priority. Now that everybody is hungry, what would you do?” Fausto adds. The PCAFI president also remarks, “Let’s stop treating [the] agricultural sector as a charity sector. Let’s start treating agriculture as a good business, [a] profitable proposition para yung mga tao mag-invest.”

PCAFI has also called for the government to give farmers better access to credit as well.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture’s secretary William Dar has announced his plans to work closely with the next administration to ensure better implementation of the agency’s initiatives on its food sufficiency programs as well as following through with its proposed 10-year plan.

With no assurance of these global shortages and simultaneous export bans from the world’s top producers of essential commodities, the Philippine government should not just prepare for crisis management but to come up with a proactive solution as well. One way that ought to be efficient in mitigating the effects of these challenges is by actively investing and empowering the domestic agricultural sector and its farmers by innovating more programs and initiatives.

Sources: BusinessMirror, Rappler, ABS CBN News