Frozen pork inventory declined 3.7% in February

The country’s stockpile of frozen pork has slightly declined with the arrival of fewer imports alongside the slow increase in the output of local producers who are recovering from the devastating effects of the African swine fever outbreak of 2019.

Based on the latest data from the National Meat Inspection Service, the inventory of frozen pork in accredited cold storage units as of Feb. 14 decreased by 3.7 percent to 57,069.66 metric tons from 59,256.76 MT the previous week.

The figure, however, was more than double—or 147.1 percent higher—than the 23,094.71 MT recorded in the same period a year ago.

Imported pork in accredited commercial and in-house cold storages comprise the bulk of the frozen pork stock at 55,880.73 MT while the volume of locally produced pork stood at 1,188.93 MT.

Chester Warren Tan, president of the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc., said local production was slowly increasing because some of the farms in Luzon that had been affected by the swine fever started to repopulate in the latter part of 2020 or the first quarter of 2021.

“As we all know, we need 11 months to one year to produce market hog or meat, from the time we introduce new breeders stock and continuously repopulating the breeders up to this time. We are expecting a monthly and quarterly increase in local production of pork/meat,” said Tan in a message.

Even if official government records show an increase in local production and given the preference for local food, consumers may not be able to purchase pork products at lower prices due to high production costs.

Tan said frozen pork sold in wet markets would still be sold at P300 to P350 per kilogram, but would not go back to the price range of P400 to P450 per kg. INQ