DA backs meat imports only from FMD-free countries

Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. said a proposal in the Senate to confine the entry into the Philippines of live animals and meat products from foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)-free countries will only temporarily displace meat-importing processors.

Lorenzo has expressed support for Senate Bill 1004 which seeks to limit the sources of meat imports to countries declared by the Office des Epizooties (OIE) as FMD-free and where vaccination is not practiced.

"When a conflict between interests having a complete disjunction occurs, public policy must favor that which will bring the greater good," said Lorenzo.

He said the proposed law while adversely affecting the meat processors in the long run, will jumpstart the swine industry into export capacities.

"This could not be possible for the past years because ever since the Philippines allowed meat products from countries infested with FMD, domestic swine farms suffered from a series of FMD outbreaks starting in 1995, costing them about P2 billion in losses," said Lorenzo.

Today, the swine industry spends P1.2 billion yearly in vaccines alone to protect itself from FMD.

On the other hand, the country’s meat products importation in the first semester already reached P3.1 billion, of which P1.3 billion or 43-percent constituted carabeef.

"It only takes basic economic sense prioritizing between dollar-earning export enterprises or dollar-draining import-based industries," said Lorenzo.

The Philippine Association of Meat Processors (PAMPI) scored Lorenzo’s stand on SB 1004 that will ban the importation of carabeef from India since most meat processors such as San Miguel Foods Inc. and Swift Foods Inc. get their raw materials from foreign suppliers.

PAMPI executive director Francisco J. Buencamino said the Department of Agriculture (DA) disregarded previous findings of the OIE which aside from stating that importations should come from FMD-free countries and where vaccination is not practiced, also included other provisions.

Buencamino stressed that the OIE authorizes the importation of carabeef from India under certain conditions which is now being applied by the Philippines.

He added that this allowed India to export carabeef to more than 50 countries worldwide.

Without India as a source, PAMPI said that under SB 1004, meat processors can only import from Australia, New Zealand or the US.

However, these will make prices of beef from those countries very high and meat processors will no longer be able to import them, those who can afford will sell their products to local consumers at unaffordable prices, Buencamino said.