April 24, 2012

 

Philippine Government agencies coordinate to control meat smuggling

 

 

Various Philippine government agencies such as the Department of Agriculture (DA), Bureau of Customs (BoC), the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NFHF), and the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines (PPFP) have joined forces to curb the continuous smuggling of meat products in the country.

 

In a memorandum of agreement (MoA) signed Friday (Apr 20) during the Pork Summit held at the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City, they agreed to assign a livestock expert from the pork and chicken stakeholders to be appointed by the industry.

 

ABONO party-list chairman Rosendo So said the livestock expert would be part of the "front line" to inspect and check the "reference price" and "true value" of incoming frozen meat and offals at any given time and instances.

 

The move, he said, was aimed to eliminate misdeclared or undervalued imported meat, which caused the government to lose some PHP3.7 billion (US$86.5 million) in revenues annually. They also agreed that an "automatic trigger price" be implemented as specific cases arise at any given time.

 

The parties also approved to give the DA-Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) the first line bio-security and veterinary quarantine inspection before entering the BoC tariff desk.

 

The hog raisers and poultry growers earlier announced they would launch a week-long holiday that would leave the country without pork and chicken if the government fails to address massive illegal entry of these products.

 

So, also director of the Swine Development Council (SDC) said the hogs and poultry sectors were now bugged by "panic selling" all over the country.

 

"Several commercial farms in Pangasinan, Pampanga, Angeles and Bulacan are now up for sale. These farms have 3,000-5,000 heads. There are 10 farms being sold in Bulacan alone," he said.

 

Rolando Tombago, SDC director and president of the Central Visayas Pork Producers Cooperative, said several farms in Central Visayas also were laying off their workers to cut cost.

 

"There are 33 commercial farms in Central Visayas and one of the biggest, the Dumanhog Farm with 5,000 heads, is up for sale," he said.

 

Former Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, whose family is engaged in cattle, hog and poultry business, said both the industry and the government incurred big losses due to rampant pork and chicken smuggling.

 

"The industry as well as the government is experiencing big losses due to technical smuggling" said Cojuangco, who was one of the resource speakers at the second day of the summit.

 

Cojuangco has called on the DA, particularly the BAI headed by Efren Nuestro, who issues import permits, which according to the former congressman was the bottom line of the rampant smuggling, to investigate these outright and technical smuggling which resulted in huge losses.

 

"Whoever is proven guilty of this crime should be penalised and removed from his position," he said.

 

Meanwhile, stakeholders have proposed the creation of an Anti-Smuggling Task Force exclusive to agricultural imports, which will protect farmers from unfair competition from smugglers.

 

The industry also proposed for a 100% inspection of all agricultural imports under 5-10% tariff specially pork and chicken products.