War, oil, food: It’s all geopolitics

I worked in the fuel industry for almost four years as a sales representative and managed the smooth process of the distribution from bulk plant to dealers to end-users.

Before I started working in the field, we had trainings to understand the oil and gas industry and for us to be equipped in the business. I was not the best student in our class but I have better understanding of how oil and gas affect our lives. “Factors affecting the prices of crude oil” was one of the major topics.

We need crude oil to transport food from farm to market to your houses and to your tables and to power our electric generators: gasoline, diesel, LPG, asphalt, and lubricants.

The many lists of the factors include geopolitics.

The war between Russia and Ukraine will have a huge impact on the prices of crude oil in the world market. This means that the P60-P65 per liter diesel in Mindanao will increase. This means that the electricity and transport costs will increase.

This basically means that the ordinary Filipino can hardly afford food.

I interact with farmers in my present job. Last January, the cost of a live pig was P140 per kilo; a week ago, it was P185 to almost P200. If not mistaken, the price of the meat in meat shops has an almost 50-percent gross profit margin. That’s P300 to P400 per kilo.

I hope it’s not too late for our government to strengthen the agriculture sector so that we can have affordable food and we can produce what we consume.

Joesam Bag De Quia, [email protected]