May 27, 2010

Philippines sets auction to rid imported pork

The government-run Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) is still disposing part of the 5,000 kilogrammes of pork it had imported late last year, even as the Department of Agriculture has authorised it to import an additional 5,000 kg this year, supposedly due to a pork shortage.

The FTI has been inviting bidders to participate in the auction of imported frozen pork, specifically for ham leg bone-in, skin-on amounting to 165 tonnes, and for ham leg, boneless and skinless amounting to 13 tonnes.

Bid prices of no less than PHP110 (US$2.37) per kg for bone-in, skin-on and PHP150 (US$3.23) per kg for boneless and skinless have been set.

According to Francisco Buencamino, executive director of the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI), there is still some leftover from the 5,000kg of pork the FTI had imported.