Lower tariff for pork imports eyed to cut prices

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) aims to secure a portion of the meat import quota with reduced tariff rates, as it considers selling pork to the public to address elevated retail prices.

Although the agency has yet to finalize the minimum access volume (MAV) quotas for this year, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said on Wednesday that the allocation will be “equally distributed” to government outlets and private traders.

The DA plans to release the MAV allocation “before the end of the month,” Tiu Laurel said on the sidelines of the ceremonial turnover of National Food Authority (NFA) rice held in Valenzuela City.

According to the agriculture chief, the “general direction” for the MAV allocation is 30,000 metric tons (MT) for processors, another 15,000 MT for the DA through Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) and Planters Products Inc. (PPI) and the remaining 10,000 MT to traders.

MAV is a trade mechanism that sets the specific quantity of an agricultural product that can be imported into the Philippines at a lower tariff compared to other origins or countries that do not enjoy such access.

This is the import quota committed by the Philippines to the World Trade Organization to help facilitate global trade.

Tiu Laurel said such a move would enable the DA to sell meat directly to Filipino consumers as needed to help reduce retail prices, with the meat sourced either locally or abroad.

“We will have the capability to buy pork from abroad to tame prices if needed using the lower tax of MAV,” he told reporters.

Tiu Laurel disclosed FTI’s plan to purchase pork from local producers and distribute those to retailers, reducing layers of intermediaries to sell agricultural products to the market.

“FTI and PPI are two government agencies, GOCCs (government-owned and controlled corporations) under the DA that can import frozen pork and we want to use that as leverage in the market so that if there is indeed some unreasonable or unfair prices around, we will intervene by importing our own kasim (pork shoulder) and pigue (hind leg) and sell them directly to retailers [and Kadiwa stores],” he added.

The Meat Importers and Traders Association (MITA) recently wrote a letter to Tiu Laurel urging the DA to immediately release the MAV import certificate and distribute the MAV allocations.

MITA earlier said delaying the distribution of MAV quotas for 2024 would result in trade disruptions, the second time it happened.

“If DA wants [to] rein in prices, it should not restrict imports at a time when production is still decreasing. On the other hand, there should be closer collaboration with importers on granting consumers more access to imported product,” MITA president emeritus Jesus Cham said in a Feb. 17 letter, to Tiu Laurel.

MITA also asked the agency to declare MAV plus for pork of at least 500,000 MT and consider MAV plus for chicken which will be declared “when appropriate.”

The group said instituting the MAV plus mechanism—which allows increased imports of agricultural products at reduced import duties—is market-friendly and pro-competition.

“With the shortage of pork and its subsequent high price, one would expect the market to shift consumption to a more affordable protein which would likely be chicken. While local production appears to be comfortable, we would also look closely at what is actually affordable to consumers,” it added.

(2025/02/20-09:35)