March 5, 2012

The Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday (Feb 29) that the duty-free import quota awarding for poultry has been completed while that of pork is about to be fully allotted.

According to a notice from the DA's Minimum Access Volume (MAV) Management Committee published in a broadsheet, the 23,490 tonnes (MT) of MAV allocation for poultry this year have been allocated to 125 companies.

Among the firms granted licenses to import poultry were Jollibee Foods Corp., Philippine Federation of Food Industry Corp., Puregold Price Club, Inc. and Rustan Supermarkets, Inc. Frozen poultry imports within and outside of the MAV are subject to a 40% duty, the committee said.

For those outside the MAV, the Tariff Commission said while the items are subject to the same tax rate as those within the MAV, these are subject to an additional tariff from the Bureau of Customs. The special duty shall be set to a level not exceeding a third of the original rate.

Meanwhile, two more companies were granted licenses to import frozen pork since the MAV Management Committee's last notice issued in January, bringing the total number of licensees to 103 from 101 firms.

The committee announced that 52,284 tonnes of frozen pork imports have been allocated out of this year's total MAV quota of 54,210 tonnes.

According to the Tariff Commission, imports of frozen pork under the MAV are subject to 30% tariff, while those brought in outside of the quota are slapped with a 40% duty.

Recipients of the pork quota allocation were The Purefoods-Hormel Co., Inc., Foodsphere, Inc. and Mekeni Food Corp.