Senate panel’s move on meat imports bill hailed

The Consumers Union of the Philippines (CUP) has lauded Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., chairman of the Senate committee on agriculture, in shelving for further study a bill which limits meat imports from selective countries.

In a letter to Magsaysay, CUP president Quirino Marquinez said it has consistently opposed since 2001 a twin House bill that was passed recently because it might hike the prices of processed meat since the only remaining source of imported meat would be Australia.

According to the CUP, it has protested the proposed bill "because we anticipated that, if passed, this would limit sources of imported meat and meat products only from high cost sources to the detriment of the final consumer."

Quite evidently, the group said local meat is available to the public at overstated prices, judging from the complaints of livestock raisers that their sale prices of live animals were depressed yet pork prices in the wet markets have remained high.

It added that one is led to believe that the distribution system employed by the hog raisers to market their livestock and meats is inherently defective.

The Filipino consumer has depended too much on the wet markets as sources of fresh table-grade meat but prices of fresh meat are "listless and unreliable," the CUP said.

It added that processed meat is the only alternative left for consumers to allow them to have their required meat protein at the most affordable prices.

But if the government restricts the sources of manufacturing grade meat for the local meat processors, then these processors would be forced to pass on the high prices of imported meat to consumers.

During a hearing last Aug. 15, the 35-member Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI) said even the Office Internationale des Epizooties, the final arbiter of meat and livestock trading in the world, allows meat importation even from FMD (foot-and-mouth disease) risk countries but with vaccination.

The meat processors, which generates P45 billion yearly, said Senate Bill 1004, if passed, would render most of their operations unviable and thus, result in closures and massive unemployment. There are some plants that are already downsizing their operations.

Besides, PAMPI said the bill would result in an average of 25 to 30 percent increase in the prices of processed meat products such as corned beef, hotdog and meat loaf owing to the higher cost of Australian beef.