May 1, 2012

 

 

The Swine Development Council said Sunday (Apr 29) that the pork and chicken holiday declared by hog and poultry raisers to protest the rampant smuggling of meat has been cut short by the Philippine government.

 

Group directors Daniel Javellana Jr. and Rosendo So said at least 60% of the 3.5 million backyard hog and poultry raisers joined the nationwide two-day meat holiday over the weekend, spurring government officials into action.

 

So said Agriculture Department officials sought them out Saturday (Apr 28) to assure the growers that the government would act on their demands to scrap the administrative orders that they felt favoured meat importers, and would also raise the tariff on offal to 30% from 5%.

 

The hog growers are also demanding that the administration remove Bureau of Animal Industry director Efren Nuestro and National Meat Inspection Service director Jane Bacayo and stop rampant smuggling and over-importation of meat.

 

Javellana, also chairman of the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc., said Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala had issued a memo to Finance Secretary Ceasar Purisima and Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon recommending the increase in the "reference price" of imported meat to keep the meat imports down.

 

But Biazon, over a radio interview, said he could not assure the hog raisers just yet of a complete stop to the smuggling of imported meat because the network of "unscrupulous traders" was well entrenched and reaching up to his bureau.

 

"It's hard to say smuggling will go away," Biazon said. "There are crooked businessmen and bureau personnel. The solution isn't just in the arrests, it's to cover the loopholes in the system." Biazon complained that it was not just his bureau that was supposed to curb smuggling and over-importation. That was also the job of the Agriculture Department and the Bureau of Animal Industry.

 

Javellana said Alcala's recommendation, which was based on the demand of the hog and poultry growers, was to impose an increase in the reference price of imported pork from US$0.80 (PHP33.60 a kilogramme) and 5% tariff or PHP1.68 (US$0.04) a kilogramme or a total of PHP35.28 (US$0.84) a kilogramme to US$2.10 (PHP88.20 a kilogramme) and 30% tariff or PHP26.46 (US$0.63) or a total of P114.66 (US$2.72) a kilogramme.

 

"The increase is acceptable to us because we find it unfair that imported meat is allowed to compete with us in the wet markets when these importers can bring in their goods at a total of only PHP35.28 (US$0.84) a kilogramme and being sold at PHP170 (US$4) a kilogramme or as low as PHP90 (US$2.13), which is just equivalent to the farm gate price," Javellana said.

 

"How come the government can afford to grant such a margin of profit for the farmers in the US, Canada and Australia when it refused to protect and does not even grant subsidies to the 3.5 million backyard growers? The imported frozen meat is killing the local fresh meat industry."

 

Javellana said the hog and poultry industries were importing soy and wheat for feed and medicines for the hogs and chickens from the US, Canada and Australia yet their counterparts in those countries were still competing with them in the Philippines.

 

So said Metro Manila's supply was the hardest hit by the pork and chicken holiday at 75%, while Cebu and Davao reported delivery disruption at 65%. He added that 60% of the supplies from the Monterey and Robina Farms did not arrive in the wet markets. But a private market group in Quezon City on Sunday said they could outsource pork to address any shortage.

 

Cornelio de Guzman, president of the Quezon City Private Markets and Slaughterhouses Association Inc., said they had other options to make up for the refusal of the hog raisers to sell their products. About 20% of Mega Q-Mart's daily supply of 2,000 pigs had been affected by the pig holiday on Friday (Apr 27), he said.

 

De Guzman is the administrator of the Maytan Estate that operates and supervises Mega Q-Mart, one of the country's largest private markets. Mega Q-Mart's traders had been warned of the planned pig holiday, prompting them to buy from independent sources in Rizal, Batangas, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Pampanga, he said.

 

"We can always find ways to buy from other hog raisers," he told the newspapers.