Imported chicken meat continues to flood the market although the threshold of local production has been met the last five years.
(SENATE OF THE PHILIPPINES / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
This ’’anomaly’’ will be probed by the Senate constituted into a Committee of the Whole (COW) following a disclosure by Senator Panfilo M. Lacson that government would loss billions of pesos in revenues over a questionable pork importation.
Lacson said a group operating inside the Department of Agriculture (DA) would rake in billons of pesos on pork importation through ‘’tongpats’ (commission) should government allow the importation of 404,000 kilos of pork which far more than local demand and the reduction of tariff rates from 30-40 to five-10 percent.
Constitution of the 24-member Senate into a COW was stated in Lacson’s Senate Resolution 685.
The probe on the alleged oversupply of chicken meat was sought by the Poultry Integrators of the Philippines.
The group complained that local refrigeration facilities accredited by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) are full of imported chicken, crowding out local production.
It stated that local producers were forced to sell their chicken at a lower price.
This was started when Executive Order 23 issued in 2017 reduced from to five percent from 40 percent tariff rate on mechanically-deboned meat of chicken.
This paved the way for under-declaration.
Importation of regular dressed chicken or chicken parts carries a higher tariff rate.
This forced some 30 percent of the local poultry industry to close shop, the group added.
The Senate learned that there is mishandling of pork and poultry due to crowded refrigeration facilities forcing vendors to put them on floors of markets in Divisoria, Balintawak market, Nepa Q Mart and other markets.