Producers say there is enough pork for the holidays

MANILA, Philippines - Pork producers have assured the public that there is enough supply of pork ahead of the holidays because of large inventory in farms and cold storages nationwide.

Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines (Propork) president Edwin Chen said yesterday there are currently 10 million kilos of pork stored in various cold storages nationwide as of last week.

Propork is an association of 48 small pork producers.

He said current demand for pork is weak, as is traditional during the third quarter of the year, causing inventories to build up in cold storages and farms.

 â€œDemand is lower so there are inventories in farms that are not sold,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the 20th International Agribusiness Exhibition and Seminar held at the World Trade Center yesterday.

“We don’t see any shortage,” he added.

Because of this, prevailing farmgate prices of prime fatteners has fallen to P110 per kilogram live weight. Regular fatteners, which yield cheaper meat, fetches around P100 per kilogram live weight.

In the second quarter of the year, live weight prices reached a peak of P118 per kilogram to P120 per kilogram live weight for prime fatteners.

Chen said demand is expected to pick up late this month because of the consumption driven by the upcoming barangay elections.

Chen also said local pork producers currently enjoy good market conditions because of the institution of new protective measures for the industry.

The National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) this year imposed stricter requirements for meat importers to prevent technical smuggling and eliminate fly-by-night traders. 

NMIS has also raised the minimum capital requirements for meat importers to P5 million. No capitalization requirement was required before.

Chen said the government recently raised the duties imposed on imported meat. Importers now pay a duty of $2 dollars per kilogram for prime cuts from 80 cents per kilogram.

Duties on offals have been raised to $1 dollar per kilo from 40 centavos per kilogram.

“I think this is a good year for pork producers,” said Chen. “Because taxes have been raised for imported meat, we are competitive.”  

He said that while the local pork industry is confident of growth prospects in the country, producers are getting jitters about the upcoming economic integration in the ASEAN region by 2015.

“We are a bit nervous of the AEC (Asean Economic Community),” said Chen, noting that the local pork industry faces tough competition from Thailand.

“That’s why we need more AAA slaughter houses,” said Chen.  

The Philippines meat industry is currently free from Foot-and-Mouth Disease that slighted the animal industries of neighboring Asian countries.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said the government is still scouting for appropriate locations for two AAA slaughterhouses (export oriented abbatoirs) that would be established north and south of Manila.