LOCAL seaweed producers has projected that the volume of carrageenan exports for this year may go down by 50 percent to 80,000 metric tons (MT), from 160,000 MT, as production of seaweed slows due to poor harvests and increasing cost of manufacturing carrageenan.

Benson  Dakay, president of the Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (Siap), said in an interview that the value of exports will remain at $180 million as prices improve due to the tightness in supply experienced not just by the Philippines, but by other seaweed-producing countries in Asia like Indonesia.

Currently, Siap said the price of Philippine cottonii was at $1,600 per metric ton. Last year it was only at $800 per MT.

“Even if prices improved in the world market, the revenues in peso terms will be lower because of a stronger peso,” said Dakay.

At an exchange rate of P42 to the dollar, the $180 million translates to P7.56 billion. Four years ago, when the peso was at P57 to the greenback, the projected export revenue would translate to gross earnings of P10.2 billion for carrageenan manufacturers.

Dakay, who is also chief executive officer and president of Shemberg Marketing Corp., said that his company can now only produce 10 metric tons of carageenan powder a day, as against its average of 40 MT per day in previous years.

“Everybody in Indonesia, the Philippines, China and Malaysia is in the same situation. Productions of [seaweed] were reduced by 50 percent,” he said.

The Siap official pointed to global warming as a major culprit behind the reduction in harvests of local seaweed farmers.

Further compounding the supply situation for local carrageenan manufacturers is the increasing cost of production.

“There is no relief. Everything is going up, from oil to the plastic packets we use for packaging our product,” he said.

Aside from the rise in the cost of production inputs, agricultural producers like Shemberg have to contend with the 1-percent creditable withholding tax, which the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) started implementing in July 2007.

“We appealed to President Arroyo to have the tax repealed, but there was no action to our appeal so the BIR continues to collect the 1-percent tax,” said Dakay.

The BIR issued Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 44-2007, which strictly enforces Revenue Regulation (RR)   2-1998 that imposes a 1-percent withholding tax on sales made by suppliers of farm products to large companies and government agencies.

In its circular, the BIR clarified that suppliers of farm products should not be exempt from the 1-percent creditable withholding tax on their sales to the government and companies belonging to the top 10,000 corporations.

ENVIRONMENT Secretary Lito Atienza has advised Oceana Gold Philippines Inc. to proceed with the construction of its Didipio mine in Kasibu, Aklan, saying the company is operating within the bounds of the law.

Infrastructure projects undertaken by the government are prone to posting cost overruns, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—A temporary restraining order (TRO) was issued by the Regional Trial Court here on Tuesday regarding the implementation of Pampanga’s  Ordinance 176, otherwise known as “An Ordinance Provi-ding for the Equitable Distribution of Shares of Fees/Taxes Imposed by the Province of Pampanga for the Extraction of Quarry Materials and for Other Purposes.”

PROJECTS with cost overruns will no longer be processed by the National Economic and Development Authorioty (Neda) without a budget strategy coming from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

A THREE-DAY conference on wastes among local officials and their representatives ended Thursday with green groups pushing for the application of innovative solutions to the garbage problem to help reverse global warming and climate change.

THE Cebu Business Month (CBM)  activity of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) next month will hold the first Philippine Open Source Summit at the Cebu International Convention Center.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) signed an agreement with two farm-based nongovernment groups to allow them to recommend industry representatives to join the department in its ocular inspections of shipments of imported farm products at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

LOCAL seaweed producers has projected that the volume of carrageenan exports for this year may go down by 50 percent to 80,000 metric tons (MT), from 160,000 MT, as production of seaweed slows due to poor harvests and increasing cost of manufacturing carrageenan.

DECRYING the incomparable costs of living against the increase in cost of basic commodities and utilities, militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) urged Thursday the scrapping of “unjust charges” to reduce power rates.