Senator Cynthia Villar on Tuesday asked the Senate to look into a reported resurgence of a garlic cartel as supposedly indicated by a sudden rise in garlic prices in the local market.
Villar, who heads the Senate committee on Agriculture and Food, noted that the increase in garlic prices is reminiscent of 2014 when the prices of garlic ballooned to more than P300 per kilo.
The 2014 garlic price surge prompted the Senate agriculture committee to investigate the matter, which concluded that a garlic cartel exists.
“We thought that they [the cartel] had learned their lesson but now we are sensing a similar scenario. We have a different administration, a different Secretary of Agricuture. I have to let them know what happened last time so we can stop this cartel,” Villar said.
Her Senate Resolution 389 wants the agriculture committee to conduct an inquiry into a reported garlic importation by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and its role in the sudden rise of garlic prices in the market.
source: manilatimes.net
