“Aanhin ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo,” our grandfathers used to ask. In English, what good is fresh grass to a dead horse?
Imported food products such as rice, chicken, pork, beef are always being offered as cheaper than local products and Filipinos who only see the sticker price are believing the lie. Even the untrained media must be spoon fed to realize the depth of destruction and final high cost of “cheap” imports. UBRA estimates that animal feed companies lost P4.877 billion in sales that did not occur because imported chicken prevented or displaced local production. Related to poultry feed manufacturing are the many farms that could not sell feed ingredients for animal feeds. Farms planted to corn lost about P11.89 billion, soya farms reportedly lost P8.154 billion, coconut oil factories lost P4.478 and rice bran sellers missed out by P1.132 billion.
While reporters and politicians have focused primarily on the price per kilo of chicken or pork, they failed miserably in pointing out the many allied industries such as major companies engaged in the research, development and production of veterinary products such as disinfectants, vaccines, vitamins and antibiotics that lost approximately P3.623 billion in sales because the government supports importation instead of local production.