July 4, 2023

Fall in demand for pork in Philippines, agriculture official confirms

An official from the Philippines Department of Agriculture (DA) confirmed on July 2 a drop in the demand for pork in the domestic market as the Philippine Statistics Authority pegged the total consumption for the second quarter to 403,000 tonnes.

Traders complained that the volume of pork being procured by vendors from them was slashed by half, Agriculture Assistant Secretary and spokesman Kristine Evangelista said in an interview.

"There is a low demand for pork," Evangelista noted. "We need to verify the data as based on the data from the PSA, the demand for the second quarter is at 403,000 metric tonnes, that is based on per capita consumption."

Philippine Pork Producers Federation president Nonon Tambago attributed the drop in the demand for pork to the low purchasing power of consumers.

"Based on observations, pork demand was affected because of low purchasing power of low income bracket consumers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," Tambago said.

Evangelista added that despite the reduction in the demand for pork, there is fear of possible shortage in the supply of the meat amid the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in many areas in the country.

"...the consumer affairs department (is) still vetting the data as we do not only rely on the locally produced (pork). We also have inventory in the cold storage facilities of imported, or frozen pork," Evangelista said.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary for Operations Arnel de Mesa said that the Philippines needs to resort to more pork imports to address the shortage in the supply amid the outbreak of ASF in the Philippines.

- Philstar