By Bernardo B. Ver II (Contributor)
Senator Ma. Imelda Josefa
“Imee” R. Marcos has called on the government to prevent pork importers from
taking over local market supply and pushing Filipino producers out of business.
“The slaughter of our
local hog raisers will begin if the Department of Agriculture (DA) executes its
plan to raise the minimum access volume of pork imports by as much as three
times the present 54,000 metric tons,” Marcos said.
“The DA may be
overcompensating in its rush to increase imports to reduce consumer prices. It
may deal the coup de grace to our pork industry before Vietnam could release a
vaccine against African swine fever (ASF) later this year,” she added.
Marcos, who chairs the
Senate committee on economic affairs, said the DA should instead speed up its
investigation into the hoarding of pork products that may be causing an
artificial hike in market prices amid the spread of ASF, particularly in Luzon.
“Many local hog
raisers have already shut down their business. Importation amid the COVID-19
pandemic means more local jobs will be lost and surrendering the country’s food
security to foreigners,” Marcos pointed out.
Prices of pork imports
from the United States, Canada, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and
Brazil suggested excessive profits were being made at the expense of consumers.
Marcos cited that the
import cost of a 40-foot container of frozen pork belly (liempo) from Spain was PHP117.87 per kilo, already including a 40%
tariff.
“Compare that to its
market price of as much as PHP450 per kilo. Even if you add cold chain, storage
and outlet delivery costs, the meat importer’s costs would only amount to about
PHP153 per kilo,” Marcos explained.
Besides arresting
hoarders and profiteers, Marcos said the government can also bring down meat
prices by subsidizing the cost of transporting pork products to Luzon, which
imports about 80% of its supply from the Visayas and Mindanao.
The senator pointed
out that the DA got the single biggest item for emergency and stimulus funding
under Bayanihan 2, amounting to PHP24 billion.
“DA’s spending must be
investigated, as well as the failure of the DTI (Department of Trade and
Industry) to implement its suggested retail prices,” Marcos noted.
Marcos’s Senate
Resolution 619 calling the government’s consumer price arbiters to an inquiry
will be taken up in a joint hearing of the committees on agriculture, food and
agrarian reform and trade, commerce and entrepreneurship on Feb. 1, 2021.
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