THE Department of Agriculture’s (DA) plan to raise tariffs on imported pork has divided hog raisers and meat importers, with producers welcoming the proposal and traders warning it would drive up consumer prices.
National Federation of Hog Farmers vice chairman Alfred Ng said producers had pushed for the immediate restoration of pork tariffs to their previous levels.
“We discussed this with Secretary Tiu Laurel this week. We wanted the tariffs restored immediately, but importers also appear to have strong lobbying power,” Ng told The Manila Times on Saturday.
Ng said liveweight prices had fallen below production costs, leaving hog raisers — particularly backyard farmers — in urgent need of government support.
“Raising tariffs is a step in the right direction. It will force importers to increase their prices and allow fresh local pork to compete more fairly,” he pointed out.
Ng also urged the National Meat Inspection Service to intensify its crackdown on frozen pork stored in facilities without proper freezers.
Meat Importers and Traders Association president emeritus Jesus Cham, however, warned that higher tariffs would fuel inflation and hurt consumers.
“This will be highly inflationary and severely affect consumers,” Cham told The Manila Times also on Saturday.
He said domestic pork supply remained insufficient and was unlikely to return to pre-African swine fever (ASF) levels within the next five to 10 years. Higher import costs, he added, would force food processors and restaurants to raise prices or reduce portion sizes.
On Friday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said that the DA was seeking higher tariffs as pork imports continued to rise despite a recovery in domestic production.
The agency has proposed raising pork tariffs by 10 percentage points in 2027 to 25 percent for imports within the minimum access volume (MAV) and 35 percent for those outside it.
The rates would return to their pre-ASF levels of 30 percent and 40 percent, respectively, in 2028.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Executive Order (EO) 62 on June 20, 2024, extending reduced tariffs on pork cuts until 2028. The order set the most-favored-nation tariff at 15 percent for in-quota imports and 25 percent for out-of-quota shipments.
Marcos also issued EO 116 on May 19, 2026, raising the pork MAV to 204,210 metric tons from 54,210 MT to boost supply and contain prices amid production losses caused by ASF.
Tiu Laurel said the proposed tariff increase had already been discussed with Marcos.
“Imports are also increasing this year, so we clearly have to support the growth of our hog industry. We have to do something about importation,” Tiu said.
The proposal comes as hog production and pork inventories recover, even as prices received by farmers continue to decline.
According to the DA, farmgate prices fell to P150 per kilogram in August 2026 from P215/kg in June 2025.
Bureau of Animal Industry data showed that meat imports reached 1.14 billion kg from January to August. Pork accounted for more than half of the total, rising by 5.18 percent to 602.65 million kg from 573.09 million kg a year earlier.
