The Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations Inc. (CONFED) on Wednesday, July 20, welcomed the plan of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to explore government-to-government fertilizer purchase with, at least, five countries to cushion the impact of the commodity’s continued prohibitive cost that may have direct implications to the Philippines’ food security situation.
“We are happy to hear this development. It’s the same proposal we made as early as August 2021 after fertilizer cost skyrocketed and more than doubled over the year-ago level,” CONFED national president Raymond V. Montinola said in reaction to Marcos’ plan which he announced in a meeting Monday with Department of Agriculture officials.
The President has temporarily assumed the post of agriculture secretary.
“Finally, there is now a concrete plan of action from the DA in response to our request since August 2021, and that is the importation of fertilizer via a G2G program,” Montinola said in a press release.
The CONFED executive said he believes that the G2G program that his group had been advocating is more reliable and affordable for all fertilizers.
“We also hope that the release of the fertilizers acquired through the G2G scheme will be coursed through the sugar associations for a more efficient distribution to farmer-members, most especially the small producers and agrarian reform beneficiaries who comprise 85 percent of our farmers,” he said.
Montinola said he hopes the planned fertilizer importation will be realized in September to October as their early arrival will be key to high productivity and address food security issues in general.
Marcos said he is looking at communicating with the governments of China, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Russia on the country’s concerns over high fertilizer prices.*
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