The Department of Agriculture (DA) sees further reduction in the prices of pork with the implementation of the Executive Order 133 raising the allocation of imports under the minimum access volume (MAV).
DA Secretary William Dar said the MAV Management Committee is set to publish the guidelines of the EO today, June 23, in a journal of the University of the Philippines-Diliman.
EO 133 raised the MAV on imported pork this year to 254,210 metric tons (MT) from 54,210 MT but any balance at the end of 2021 will not be carried over to the following year.
Without providing figures, Dar said a significant volume of imported pork has entered the country.
Another order, EO 134 cut tariff rates on pork for a period of one year at a graduated basis from 30 percent in-quota and 40 percent out-quota to 10 percent in-quota and 20 percent out-quota for the first three months and 15 percent in-quota and 25 percent out-quota from the fourth to the twelfth month.
Dar said on DA’s monitoring, price drops were recorded for imported frozen pork but not for fresh slaughtered pork.
He said the implementation of the guidelines of EO 133 will help the market achieve “equilibrium” of pork prices. This will also be the basis of whether or not DA will issue suggested retail prices on pork.
Based on data from DA’s Bantay Presyo as of June 22, prevailing of prices have dropped by P10 per kilo to P340 for kasim and P370 for liempo from the previous month.
