March 15, 2016

An umbrella group of pork roducers' federations has demanded that the administration of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III put a stop to pork smuggling, which it claimed had caused the loss of around 9 billion pesos (US$192.86 million) in revenues over the last six years.

In an open letter to Aquino, the broad grouping-ed by the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines (Pro-pork), National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NFHFI) and the Association of Agricultural Industry (Sinag)-aid the inventory in backyard farms shrank by 17% to 7.95 million head in 2015 from 9.54 million head in 2010 when Aquino assumed office. Aquino steps down from office on June 30.

"The entire livestock industry, at no point in recent years, has suffered this much loss," the letter read. "Thousands of backyard hog raisers are losing their livelihood by the day as smuggling not only continues, but is flourishing."

The pork producers also claimed that "close to 80,000 backyard hog raisers have lost their source of livelihood, and even the once viable commercial hog farms are struggling" as smuggled pork was flooding the local market. 

"Based on the report of our trading partners, around 202 million kilos of pork were smuggled outright, or through misdeclaration, into the country from 2010 to mid-2015," they said. "This translates to about P9 billion in lost revenues for the government."

They also demanded the strict implementation of the labelling requirements on expiry dates and asked Aquino to immediately sign into law the approved bill defining smuggling of agricultural commodities as an act constituting economic sabotage.

Earlier, the groups threatened to hold a five-day "pork holiday", withholding their meat products from the local market, if the President turned a deaf ear to their demands.