November 4, 2009

 

Philippines may face pork shortage

 

 

The Philippines may face a pork shortage this Christmas after the public and private sectors separately failed to secure supply commitments from abroad.

 

Meat importers and traders failed to secure commitments as their suppliers may be unable to meet the deadline set by the Department of Agriculture (DA), an industry official said.

 

According to the Meat Importers and Traders Association (MITA) president Jesus Cham, pork sourced from the US, Canada, and Europe - the same countries where traders sought to procure supplies - takes 60 days to arrive in the Philippines.

 

Traders and importers were given up to December 15 to bring in as much as 2.5 million kilogrammes of the commodity, the government said.

 

However, no company from any of the three countries agreed to export that much pork to the Philippines within the specified time period.

 

The government decided to import as much as 20,000 tonnes of pork products following the onslaught of Tropical Storm Ondoy, which caused massive flooding in the National Capital Region and damages in the farm sector in Southern Tagalog, Central and Northern Luzon regions.

 

In October, local hog raisers said the estimated shortage in pork products is 30,000 tonnes due to diseases which ravaged hog farms in Luzon coupled with the losses from recent typhoons.

 

However, government pork imports may still be unable to meet demand because local hog production shortfall has reached 30,000 tonnes.

 

Cham also disclosed that the Food Terminal Inc., an agency subsumed under the Department of Agriculture (DA), has sought offers from companies to supply pork to ensure sufficient inventories during the Christmas season.

 

The two tenders were scheduled on October 14 and 20 but both biddings reportedly failed. Agriculture and FTI officials refused to comment on this development.

 

The government allotted PHP550 million to import 4,000 tonnes of various pork parts including pork belly, ham, picnic, and various types of cuts acceptable to the procuring entity.

 

Shipments are expected to arrive on or before November, based on the terms of reference, but it was moved to a later date that has yet to be announced.

 

Agriculture undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla said the deadline is currently being re-evaluated.

 

Local hog raisers allayed a supply shortfall, asserting that domestic production will be able to cover the gap should imports fail to arrive on time.