The volume of imported pork dropped last week, thus slashing the country’s inventory of frozen pork amid higher local pork production.
In a report, the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) said the inventory of frozen pork in accredited cold storage facilities dropped to 69,668.10 metric tons as of Dec. 20.
This was lower than the 72,068.04 MT recorded as of Dec. 13 but much higher than the 32,821.52 MT recorded in the same period a year ago.
The stock of imported pork, which accounted for the bulk of the stockpile, decreased to 67,804.73 MT from 70,387.92 MT in the previous week.
“The data on pork imports this year is unprecedented,” Jayson Cainglet, executive director of Sinag, said in a text message to the Inquirer.
But the volume of locally produced pork rose to 1,863.37 MT from last week’s 1,680.12 MT to meet the traditional increase in demand during the Christmas holidays.
“It is expected that there is a general increase [in] pork consumption since people have extra cash and are willing to spend on pork,” he added.
Central Luzon captured the majority of imported pork supply at 24,011.37 MT, followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) at 23,253.05 MT and Calabarzon at 19,057.74 MT.
In terms of local pork inventory, most of it went to Calabarzon (974.26 MT), Central Luzon (318.51 MT) and NCR (295.63 MT).