The Philippines frozen pork inventory in accredited cold storages declined from 75,024.9 MT recorded on November 29, 2021 to 62,695.25 MT as of January 10, 2022. Frozen pork inventory takes into account the in-house cold storage, which also includes meat processing plants and slaughterhouses.
On November 29, 2021, imported frozen pork still held the lion share with 73,418.39 MT, while local frozen pork only accounted for 1,606.52 MT. Additionally, the National Capital Region or Metro Manila had the largest share in the inventory of frozen imported pork with 26,726.38 MT. However, the inventory in the capital declined to only 17,611.06 MT on January 10, 2022.
The national government aims to bring down the prices and stabilize the supply of pork in the country, hence, two Executive Orders were released in 2021.
- The first is EO 133, which increased the minimum access volume (MAV) for pork meat to 254,210 MT in 2021. Consequently, from January to October 2021, pork import logged 483,422 MT which was 135% higher than the previous year’s record.
- The second is EO 134, which lowered the tariff for in-quota pork imports to 10% for the first 3 months and 15% in the subsequent months. This is lower than the original rate of 30%. On the other hand, a 20% tariff was imposed for out-quota pork imports for the first 3 months and 25% in the subsequent months, which is also lower than the original tariff of 40%.
Aside from the directives, the Department of Agriculture (DA) mentioned that it would also monitor pork prices and would be implementing suggested retail prices (SRP) for pork if prices continue to rise.
(Source: PhilStar)
