DTI head sees need to import chicken, pork

Trade and Industry Secretary Cesar Purisima has reiterated the need to import chicken and pork for at least two months to bridge the current shortfall in local supply.

Purisima, who recently toured various wet markets in Metro Manila to personally monitor prices and supply of basic goods and prime commodities, noted that prices were still higher than normal, particularly pork and chicken.

He said this was due to inadequate supply as attested by market vendors and grocery operators at the recently-concluded National Price Coordinating Council meeting.

"A one or two-month supply of imported chicken and pork is all we need to stabilize the supply and bring back the cost to normal levels," Purisima said.

Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. said he was amenable to the importation of pork and chicken to ease the current tightness in supply for as long as the imports will not come in at zero tariff.

Imported chickens are pegged a tariff of 40 percent.

"Importation is always an option but it should be well-timed so the viability of our local producers will not be jeopardized," Lorenzo said.

The importation is being proposed to ease the supply shortfall in chicken supply that caused prices to soar to P115 per kilo or 15.79 percent higher than P95 per kilo last month. Farmgate prices have also gone up to as much as P70 per kilo.

Local poultry raisers said the shortfall was due to a delay in the harvest of chicken because of the extreme hot summer months that caused heat stroke in chickens.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) expects poultry supply to further tighten next month which would further push up prices.

The DA said that based on historical domestic consumption patterns, the price of chicken normally goes up in April and declines in August, picks up again in November as demand increases in the weeks approaching the Christmas holidays.

In November last year, chicken prices started to go up and soared to as high as P120 per kilo during the Christmas season.