Easing of restrictions on sale of imported pork needed – Chua

MANILA, Philippines — Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua wants restrictions on the sale of imported pork especially in wet markets relaxed in order for more people to benefit from more affordable prices of pork imports.

In a virtual forum organized by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP), Chua said pork inflation has gone down to the 30 percent level after hitting almost 60 percent in the middle of the year.

He said this is a result of the increased pork imports under the minimum access volume (MAV) as well as the lower tariffs imports.

In May, President Duterte issued Executive Order (EO) 133, which increased the MAV for pork meat to 254,210 metric tons (MT) for MAV year 2021, as one of the measures to augment local pork supply and stabilize prices in the market.

Duterte also signed EO 134, which provides that in-quota pork imports or those under the MAV, are slapped with a 10 percent tariff for three months and increased to 15 percent in the remaining months. This is lower than the original rate of 30 percent.

Out quota pork imports are slapped with a 20 percent tariff for the first three months, which will be raised to 25 percent in the remaining months. This is lower than the original tariff of 40 percent.

Chua pointed out that overall inflation declined in the National Capital Region (NCR), where most of the pork imports had arrived and  gone to supermarkets.

However, inflation outside of NCR reached 5.2 percent.

“And one reason for that is that some restrictions prevent some of these imported supplies from being sold elsewhere, especially in wet markets. This is something that we think should be further relaxed so that more people can benefit,” Chua said.

On Wednesday, the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI) called out policies banning the sale of frozen pork in wet markets without freezers.

The group emphasized that the Department of Agriculture’s move to expand the coverage area of the 200,000 MT pork imports under the MAV Plus to include areas outside of the NCR Plus region would not address the unabated high prices of pork.

“The high prices of meat products which the government has miserably failed to address is due to dysfunctional policies of the DA which misled economic managers in the executive department,” PAMPI said.