Farmers’ group warns pork imports may top 1 billion kg

Sinag executive director Jayson Cainglet said rising imports had pushed farmgate hog prices down to P130–P145 per kg, threatening the viability of producers and related industries.Philippine meat imports reached 1.14 billion kilos from January to August, driven largely by pork shipments, data from the Bureau of Animal Industry showed.Pork imports rose by 5.2 percent to 602.65 million kg from 573.09 million kg a year earlier and accounted for more than half of total meat shipments.The total included 254.52 million kg of pork cuts, 182.96 million kg of offal, 86.11 million kg of bellies, 51.35 million kg of fat and 27.6 million kg of skin.Sinag wants the government to restore pork tariffs to 30 percent for shipments within the minimum access volume (MAV) and 40 percent for imports exceeding the quota.The group said lower tariffs and increased imports had failed to reduce retail prices. Instead, they had depressed farmgate prices, discouraged investment and weakened domestic food production.“The government must stop treating importation as the automatic solution to every supply or price problem,” Cainglet said. He urged authorities to stabilize the hog industry, support local production and address the wide gap between farmgate and retail prices.Meanwhile, Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said the government was studying an early increase in pork tariffs to protect local producers.Executive Order 62, signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in June 2024, set the tariff at 15 percent for pork imports within the MAV and 25 percent for shipments beyond the quota. The reduced rates remain in effect until 2028.The rates are supposed to return to 30 percent for within-quota imports and 40 percent for shipments outside the quota in 2029.“We may not have to wait until the end of 2028 to make an adjustment,” de Mesa said, noting that any tariff change would affect both producers and consumers.