Mandaue to adjust abattoir payments

CEBU, Philippines - The Mandaue City council the other day approved on first reading a proposed ordinance amending the city’s new market code to lower post-mortem and slaughter fees.

City councilor Jimmy Lumapas, the city council’s committee on market and abattoir has authored the ordinance in response to appeals made by meat producers in September this year to lower the city’s meat inspection fees as it will entail them big losses if the city government  will continue to collect the increase in meat inspection fees that started in January this year.

Lumapas’ proposed ordinance aims to lower the permit to slaughter fee for domestic poultry from 30 centavos to 20 centavos.

It also aims to lower the post-mortem fee for large cattle, hogs, goats, and sheep from 75 centavos per kilogram to 35 centavos; and for domestic poultry from 50 centavos per head to 30 centavos.

Under the proposed measure, the ante-mortem fee for hogs remain at P5 per head but the post-mortem fee for hogs was lowered from 75 centavos per kilo to 35 centavos.

The proposed ordinance will have a retroactive effect. The post-mortem fee for cattle, hogs, goat and sheep will retroact to October 2011, when the revised market code took effect; while the ante-mortem fee and post-mortem fee for domestic poultry will retroact to Jan. 1, 2013. 

“Taas pa hinuon ni gamay compared sa Cebu City, apan miangkon man sad ang Sunpride nga ubos ra sad kaayo ang fees nga gi-impose sa Cebu City but once mapasar ni nga ordinansa mo-lower dyud post-mortem ug slaughter fees sa siyudad,” Lumapas said.

Stephen Castillo, president of Sunpride Foods Inc. in September this year told the city council that the city ordinance increasing the ante mortem permit fee from P3 per hog to P5 and the post mortem regulatory service from P0.25 to P0.75 that took effect last January has caused more “fly by night slaughterhouses” in the city and has driven away Sunpride’s client’s to other city.  (FREEMAN)