PAMPI on calls to ban imports: Processed meat shortage looms

CEBU, Philippines — The Philippine Association of Meat Processors, Inc., (PAMPI) claims that calls to ban meat imports could result to a shortage in processed meat products in the country.

PAMPI president Felix Tiukinhoy in a statement said the United Broilers Raisers Association’s call to ban meat imports is an action that is well-orchestrated but a subtle attempt by vested groups to provoke a crisis and destabilize the economy.

UBRA, together with other agriculture groups and producers, have been calling on the government to temporarily stop imports as the lockdown has caused a downturn in the country’s socio-economic activities, including a decrease in demand of poultry products.

“We deplore bullying of officials in the DA or any regulatory body who are unable to answer back because norms of government conduct require them not to be onion-skinned as well as to exercise maximum tolerance,” said Tiukinhoy, who is the president of Cebu-based Virginia Farms Inc. (VFI).

Tiukinhoy said, since the start of lockdown in March this year, the meat product imports that are being demanded to be banned by a group of poultry lobbyists, enabled its industry to produce processed meat.

He noted that the pandemic and the eventual lockdown has put all businesses at a standstill but the meat processing sector was asked to produce whatever they could to stock the national food relief program.

In the few months since the lockdown, canned goods were nearly wiped out from the grocery shelves, prompting manufacturers to ramp up production.

The quarantine protocol forced processing plants to produce an unprecedented volume of 256.2 million cans of shelf-stable products that were distributed to and by national relief agencies, local government units and volunteer groups nationwide.

Some 3.7 million kilograms of frozen processed meat items were also produced and distributed through various channels.

Tiukinhoy mentioned that of PAMPI’s members, five firms produced canned goods, such as VFI, CDO Foodsphere Inc., Sunpride Foods Inc., Century Pacific Food Inc., Lami Foods and Gold Ribbon Group.

Meanwhile, other processed meat manufacturers produced frozen meat items and dry goods, which were distributed to markets or donated to depressed areas.

In an open letter to the DA Secretary William D. Dar, UBRA, supported by the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc (PCAFI), has dismissed the claim of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) that poultry imports are too “minimal” to hurt Filipino producers.