The country’s biggest agricultural groups on Tuesday sent a joint letter to the Office of the President opposing the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) twin proposal to increase pork imports and reduce tariffs as a means to bring down meat prices.
The letter, signed by 15 industry leaders, was in response to President Duterte’s recommendation to increase the country’s pork imports at lower tariffs to 350,000 metric tons (MT) from the current 54,000 MT.
The Palace has yet to take a stand on another proposal that would reduce the pork tariffs to a low of 5 percent from a high of 20 percent over the next 12 months. Once approved, it would open the market to cheaper pork imports.
Urgent plea
“We write in desperation to you, Mr. President, in the hope that you will hear the plea of the local agriculture industry—a sector that has been ravaged by both the [African swine fever] outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic. We earnestly appeal to the Palace to shelve the proposals of the [DA],” the letter read.
The groups described the twin proposals as unnecessary and “fatal blows that could slowly kill the hog industry” as bringing in more affordable frozen pork would drive several stakeholders out of business.
They added that slashing pork tariffs would deprive the government of revenues that could be used to assist hog growers toward recovery, some of which were forced to seek alternative livelihoods after their farms were decimated by the viral hog disease.
GDP contribution
The pork shortfall could also be imported without increasing the import volume and reducing the tariff rates, they said, as importers were allegedly gaining profits of P200 to P250 a kilo.
According to the letter, the hog industry contributed about P416 billion to the country’s gross domestic product before the spread of swine fever, including the animal feeds supplied by rice and corn farmers, coconut growers and sugar laborers.
“By itself, the hog industry in 2019 accounted for a staggering 45 percent of the total value of production of the Philippine livestock and poultry subsector,” it added. Part of the value chain are feed millers, viajeros, backyard processors, retailers and vendors. INQ