Kadiwa distribution hub and cold storage facility in Taguig (Courtesy of FTI)
MANILA – The Department of Agriculture (DA) must justify choosing Subic, Zambales as the future site of a PHP500-million worth of laboratory-equipped cold examination facility (CEFA) for agricultural imports, Senator Imee Marcos said on Monday.
Marcos said first-border inspections away from the National Capital Region, where most meat imports are shipped, pose a higher risk of another African swine fever (ASF) outbreak.
“What’s cooking in Subic that imported meat and crops must be diverted away from Manila?” Marcos said in a statement. “Ini-import na natin lahat ng pagkain. Pati ba naman sakit (We’re already importing all kinds of food. Must diseases be imported too)?”.
She pointed out that food imports will be more expensive for Metro Manila’s 12 million residents due to the additional cost of delivery from Subic.
The DA and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority signed an agreement for the construction of a CEFA in agriculture in November last year, primarily with the aim to help deter smuggling in the freeport zone.
The facility will rise on a 2,000-square meter property to inspect imported containerized agri-fishery commodities and with laboratories that will aid the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), Bureau of Plant Industry, and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources for inspection.
A July 18 briefer of the DA recommended the facility’s funding, and construction by June 2023.
Marcos found out from BAI insiders that the project, first proposed in 2019 but whose funding lapsed in 2020, could have been built last year in Manila’s South Harbor where a vacant 5,000-square-meter lot, known as Block 162, was managed by Asian Terminals Inc. under a concession granted by the Philippine Ports Authority.
However, plans for the construction of the laboratory-equipped facility were shipped to Subic.
“It’s been nine years since the Food Safety Act became law, but first-border inspections have not been properly enforced. The facility’s location is key to achieving food safety and security,” Marcos said.
Although ASF cases have subsided since nationwide outbreaks began in 2019, she warned that a major surge could be triggered by contaminated pork imports and cause business closures and job losses in the swine industry, shortage of pork products, and further increase in already high market prices of pork.
As of August, the BAI said active ASF cases are confined to five regions from the previous 14 -- Cordillera Administrative Region, Central Luzon, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, and Soccsksargen.
BAI data showed pork imports of 545,213,681 kilos made up about 54 percent of the total meat imports from January to September.
Spain, Canada, and Brazil have supplied 61 percent of the Philippines' pork demand, with Belgium, the United States, Denmark, the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands providing the other 39 percent. (PNA)
