Above, the reason I have the logo of the United Broilers Raisers Association, UBRA, is that UBRA President Elias Jose M Inciong has been news-noisy about poultry products that the Philippines imports from other countries. The UBRA wants imports to stop, period. Otherwise, the UBRA considers the Bureau of Animal Industry, BAI, enemy of UBRA. Here comes PH mass media saying that the BAI is favoring the foreign poultry raisers and disfavoring the local. Since the BAI is an agency of the Department of Agriculture, DA, the news really means that the DA, now under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, is favoring the importers and not the local producers. A hard slap on the public face of the DA.
Is that a fact? BAI Director Ronnie Domingo had told UBRA to “self-regulate,” meaning correct the misbalance of supply and demand in various areas of the country considering the lockdown. Mr Domingo said that the Philippines cannot simply suspend imports which is what poultry raisers want, because PH has member-commitments with the World Trade Organization, the same which explains the unwelcome necessity of the Rice Tariffication Law. We have to follow international laws.
BAI Director Ronnie Domingo also said:
There is really oversupply in other areas. To solve that, we need industry self-regulation, for (UBRA) to spread out so that even if one place is in quarantine, there will be supply in the other areas.
Actually, UBRA will not stop talking until the DA-BAI stops poultry importation. That is like the UBRA saying, “The chicken meat lovers will have to bear the undersupply of poultry products until we can produce enough for the country.” That is not holding only the DA but the whole country as poultry hostage!
The UBRA open letter says, “There is an oversupply of broilers in the market (that has) gravely damaged the poultry industry. ” Actually, that is only half-true – there is an oversupply in some parts of the country and an undersupply in other parts. And it is UBRA’s failure! What the DA-BAI was saying is that the UBRA should manage the overall supply situation and not rely on the government. UBRA cannot blame the DA-BAI for its own supervisory failures!
So now you know why I created this new blog of mine, THiNK Journalism, https://ithinkjournalism. blogspot. com – to wage a “silent revolution” on negative reporting by the mass media and negative thinking by farmer leaders especially in agriculture.
UBRA wants poultry product importation stopped. This is not a simple stop-and-go demand because about 70% of the importation consists of mechanically deboned meat, MDM, fats, offals and rinds. The MDM is used as raw material for meat processors and not locally available.
In its indignation reaction, the UBRA is ignoring what the BAI has presented as short-, medium- and long-term plans – UBRA, if you don’t know them, ask the DA!
Meanwhile? The UBRA has to develop a national system that guides the location, schedule and volume of UBRA production in various regions.
Dapat uobra yan, UBRA!@517
No comments:
Post a Comment