Inventory of frozen pork nearly doubles in late Oct.
THE INVENTORY of pork in cold storage rose 97.6% year on year to 83,329.39 metric tons (MT) as of Oct. 25, according to the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS).
The NMIS said in a report that imported frozen pork accounted for 97.7% or 81,416.95 MT of the total.
Volumes in cold storage had risen 2.3% month on month and fell 0.4% week on week.
The Philippine Association of Meat Processors, Inc. (PAMPI) has said that the inventory pileup is due to the failure of the government to account for the lack of freezers in wet markets in the National Capital Region (NCR) and nearby areas, where the imports are authorized for sale.
“Stall owners in wet markets do not have freezers. They barely have enough capital to pay for daily deliveries of fresh pork. So how can they sell imported pork even if they are priced cheaper?” PAMPI said.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) recently issued Memorandum Circular No. 23, which expanded the authorized sale outlets for imported pork to areas with “relatively high prices” of pork meat outside of the so-called NCR Plus region, which includes Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna, and Cavite.
It said the directive was issued in response to the low utilization of the new minimum access volume (MAV) quota for pork imports due to restrictions on their sale.
Previously, pork imports were only permitted for sale in wet markets, supermarkets, and Kadiwa outlets within NCR Plus.
Rolando E. Tambago, Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines, Inc. president, told BusinessWorld via mobile phone that the memorandum circular did not specify where market coverage will be expanded.
“There are still huge inventories of imported pork in cold storage especially in the National Capital Region (NCR), Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and Cebu. It is more than double the usual or even much more inventory versus the same period last year,” Mr. Tambago said.
“Our members in the Visayas and Mindanao are currently sending a lot of surplus pork to Luzon. Instead of focusing on imported pork, the DA should focus its attention on helping out hog farmers to in transporting pork to Luzon from the Visayas and Mindanao,” he added.
The volume of imported pork allowed to enter the country was increased by President Rodrigo R. Duterte under Executive Order (EO) No. 133, which expanded the MAV quota by 200,000 MT to 254,210 MT.
Pork imports within the MAV quota are charged lower tariffs compared to imports exceeding the MAV.
Mr. Duterte also signed EO 134, which lowered the tariffs on all pork imports, within or beyond the MAV quota, for one year.
Both directives were issued to address supply and price issues after the hog inventory was depleted due to the ongoing African Swine Fever outbreak. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
