The Department of Agriculture (DA) yesterday raised the possibility of the private sector and government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) getting a share of this year’s allocation of the minimum access volume (MAV) for imported pork.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. said the move will enable the government to influence the retail prices of pork.
Of the 55,000 metric tons (MT) of imported pork allowed under MAV, some 30,000 MT will be allotted to processors, 15,000 MT to the government through the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) and Planters Products Inc. (PPI) and the remaining 10,000 MT to traders.
“[That will be done by the government] to tame prices if needed, using the lower tax of MAV,” Tiu Laurel said.
He added such allocation is the “general direction” of the DA but it is “not yet finalized.”
Tariff rates of imported pork under MAV are only at 15 percent, compared with foreign pork shipments outside MAV at 25 percent. MAV pertains to the volume of farm commodities that can be brought in with lower tariff rates, under the World Trade Organization.
“During our meeting with the pork industry, one plan is for the FTI to buy pork from our local producers and distribute it to the retailers to lessen the layering. And of course, for the government to see first hand, details of the trade to solve the issue,” Tiu Laurel said.
“We also can import. FTI and PPI are two government agencies, GOCCs under the DA, that can import frozen pork. And we want to use that as leverage in the market if there are indeed some unreasonable or unfair prices around, we will intervene by importing our kasim and pigue to directly sell to retailers,” he added.
The DA chief said that if pork industry players from the logistics side up to retailers and producers can have a feasible agreement with the agency to pull down retail prices, the government will no longer have to directly sell pork products to the retailers and the public.
DA said that the slightly elevated price of local pork is also driven by a “natural course of business” since most producers have lost their capital at the height of the African swine fever outbreak.
“Right now, producers also want to recover a little so they can also repopulate. So, we just have to find the right balance. Our pork producers are willing to go back to their figures, their computation, and profitability and come up with a win-win solution for all,” Tiu Laurel added.
DA’s monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region on Monday showed the prevailing price of pork ham ranging from P350 to P420 per kg; pork belly from P390 to P480 per kg; frozen kasim from P230 to P290 per kg; frozen liempo from P290 to P350 per kg.
