Business NEWS

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has been formally asked by its legally mandated arm for stakeholders’ participation, Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF), to withdraw its petition to lower import tariff rates on pork.

The government-funded transport subsidy for hog shipment is now available, but hog raisers must first follow a lengthy process.

Amid the persistent African Swine Fever (ASF) and shortage in hogs supply in the country, San Miguel Corporation (SMC), through its food unit San Miguel Foods (SMF), announced it is rationalizing its Monterey business by transferring its nationwide hog inventory to local raisers.

Despite the tightness in supply, the Philippine government is targeting to bring down the farm-gate price of pork in the country to P165 to P170 per kilogram (/kg), which is nearly double the commodity’s current retail cost of around P350/kg recently recorded at select markets in Metro Manila.

The Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI) is asking President Rodrigo Duterte to authorize limited importation of up to 50,000 metric tons (MT) only at zero tariff at zero.

The Department of Agriculture’s (DA) National Tobacco Administration (NTA), which currently operates a state-owned meat processing facility in Ilocos Sur, will set aside P10 million to augment the facility’s operations.

Pampanga-based food and meat processor Mekeni Food Corporation has remained optimistic about its operations for 2021 despite the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company’s top official said.  

The Philippine government is planning to triple the minimum access volume (MAV) allocation for pork in a bid to address the shortfall in the commodity, which is caused by the highly fatal animal disease that is the African Swine Fever (ASF).

Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has designed a credit facility that specifically targets to provide funding to commercial hog raisers who were affected by the African Swine Fever (ASF).  

The fatal animal disease African Swine Fever (ASF) that reached the Philippines’ backyard farms in August last year is now on its third wave, so far resulted in the culling of more than 400,000 pigs across the country.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) will attempt to facilitate the shipment of as much as 30,000 hogs from Visayas and Mindanao to Luzon in order to address what it calls “artificial” price increase of pork being experienced now in Metro Manila.