December 5, 2006

Philippine meat processors slam China pork smuggling

The Philippine Association of Meat Processors (Pampi) is condemning the unbridled pork smuggling from China allegedly perpetrated by a meat processor from the province of Pampanga.

In a statement, Pampi has asked Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to investigate the smuggling of 62,000 kilos of illegal Chinese meat shipments amounting to 12 million pesos (US$241,886), which ended up in a warehouse in Pampanga province.

The agriculture department bans the importation of meat products from China, which has not been declared free from the contagious foot-and-mouth disease afflicting Chinese livestock.

However, shipments of hot meat from China continue to flood the local market, threatening both the local hog industry and the meat-processing sector. In September this year, four container vans containing smuggled meat products disappeared from the warehouse of the Bureau of Customs, which was later recovered in Pampanga.

Pampi issued the protest after the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group raided the Kayabe ice plant and cold storage in Barangay Lagundi in Mexico town on Tuesday.

Aside from Pampanga, a large portion of hot meat has also been found in the province of Laguna.

The vegetable, hog and poultry sectors have earlier called for the re-establishment of Anti Smuggling Task force to curb contrabands from coming in as Customs and other authorities fail to completely ward off smuggling.