May 8, 2012
 

Pork, chicken holiday in the Philippines watched; business as usual for processors

The meat processing industry in the Philippines said that it will be "business as usual" amid intensifying competition with local hog raisers and their threat of a five-day pork holiday.

This developed as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is watching closely the possible impact of the meat holiday to make sure traders do not take advantage of the situation.

DTI Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya said the agency is warning traders against using the pork and chicken holiday to speculate and increase their prices. Maglaya said that while chicken prices have gone up by PHP20 (US$0.47) per kilo, this is because of poor harvest resulting from the weather and not because of the planned holiday.

The prevailing price of chicken is now PHP130 (US$3.07) per kilo. Pork is priced between PHP170 (US$4.02) and PHP180 (US$4.26).

Maglaya said that they are looking for alternatives to pork and chicken as they don't want retailers to get the wrong information and increase the prices of pork and chicken because of the holiday.

Meanwhile, Francisco Buencamino, executive director of the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI), said the food processors claimed the meat products they import are "manufacturing grade" that do not necessarily compete with the "table grade" meat sold in wet markets.

Buencamino said the hog raisers are "barking up the wrong tree when they insist that the uncontrolled entry of frozen meat products is killing them," , adding that even without the pork holiday, there will be reduced supply of pigs for slaughter.

He said threats to go on a pork holiday are only a form of coordinated "blackmail" by the local hog industry to force the Department of Agriculture to move against meat importers.

Buencamino added that hog raisers may be only masking their short supply situation with this campaign against importation..

The Alliance of Food Processors, Providers and Stakeholders (AFPPS) said pork importation increased 56.4 percent from 2009 to 2010 at 179 million kilos.

The competition in the wet markets comes only from pork cuts. The combined volume of these imported parts accounts for only 31.8 percent of the total 179 million kilos, or a mere 56.9 million kilos, the group added.

It added that the rest of imported pork parts were: bellies, 16.4 million kilos or 9.17 percent of the total; fats, 29.4 million kilos, 16.45 percent; offal, 55.2 million kilos, 30.88 percent, and rind/skin, 14.16 percent.

These parts, AFPPS said, are not available from the domestic supply.

If the local pork producers would supply the processors with the above parts in the quantities that they require, they would instantly dry up the local wet markets of these pork parts, Buencamino said.

AFPPS said the meat processors' requirements in 2010 alone of 178,905,096 kilos in pork cuts, bellies, deboned meat, offal, rind and skin, required the slaughter of 2,104,766 pigs.

The number of pigs slaughtered will deprive the consumer market of 2,104,766 pigs from the wet markets said AFPPS, adding that the maximum, it would have to cause the slaughter of 20,676,269 pigs to meet the volume of imported pork parts for use in processing plants. The group said the consequence that this shortage will impact on consumer prices of pork in the wet markets will be dreadful as there is not enough volume from domestic supply.

AFPPS said that based on the data, it is hard to believe the charge of over importation leveled against meat processors and traders.