Pork prices remain high despite imports

The volume of pork imports that entered the Philippines increased last week but failed to bring down retail prices as promised as consumers continue to pay more for pork products.

Data from the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) showed the inventory of frozen pork in accredited cold storages rose to 67,517.34 metric tons as of Jan. 24 from 64,363.86 MT a week earlier.

Frozen pork inventory more than tripled from the 21,788.09 MT recorded in the same week last year.

Imported pork in accredited commercial and in-house cold storage facilities made up the bulk of the stock at 66,280 MT, higher than the previous week’s 63,094.13 MT. But the volume of locally produced pork declined to 1,237.23 MT from 1,269.73 MT.

It was still Central Luzon that stored most of the frozen pork with 23,392.51 MT, followed by Calabarzon with 20,382.40 MT and the National Capital Region (NCR) with 17,292.79 MT.

Calabarzon accounted for the majority of local pork inventory with 490.12 MT while the NCR came in second with 424.36 MT.

It can be recalled that the government resorted to importation to address low supply and combat rising pork prices following the African swine fever (ASF) contagion that hit the Philippines over two years ago.

Yet industry stakeholders believe the government’s import policy translated to elevated retail prices despite lower landed costs or the total amount of money paid to ship a product.

“The intention of the government to bring in more imported pork at low tariff is to bring down pork retail price to pre-ASF price situation. But it did not happen and I’m sure it will not happen,” Rolando Tambago, president of Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines Inc., said in a message.

Tambago pointed out this is the result of the two directives—Executive Order No. 133 and EO 134—issued by President Duterte in the middle of 2021.

EO 133 raised the minimum access volume (MAV) for pork imports to 254,210 MT from 54,210 MT. This was meant to address the supply shortage caused by the ASF outbreak.

On the other hand, EO 134 sets tariffs on pork imports under MAV to 10 percent for the first three months and 15 percent in the next nine months. For imports outside MAV, the tariffs are 20 percent for the first three months and 25 percent in the next nine months.

“I think the pork import volume will continue until midyear considering the tariff for outside MAV is still valid until [the] end of May 2022,” Tambago said.

Jayson Cainglet, executive director of Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, noted the landed cost of pork imports went down to P50 a kilo yet retail pork prices remain high.

Imported pork prices, he said, should range between P200 and P200 a kilo given that the landed cost is around P140 to P160 only.

Both Tambago and Cainglet said the government should ramp up local production instead of importing pork products at low tariffs. INQ