May 16, 2008

Philippines encourages pork imports with lower tariffs

The Philippines recently encouraged the import of 38,000 tonnes pork under the minimum access volume (MAV) to increase the scant supply in the domestic market.

The import of the low tariff-bearing MAV programme will ease hog price in the market along with government's breeder restocking and vaccination programme, Department of Agriculture (DA) secretary, Arthur Yap, said.

The MAV programme has not been fully utilized by the private sector over the past few years due to sufficient pork supply in the market.

The programme proved valuable recently with pork prices hitting PHP200 (US$4.67) per kilogramme.

The DA encourages Philippine private companies that have allocation under the MAV to import their allotted volume.

The bulk of Philippine pork imports come from Germany, the US and EU.

The country has not imported pork from neighboring Asian countries due to the absence of proper quarantine procedures and presence of some diseases like foot and mouth disease and hog cholera.