Government loses P9 B tax revenues to technical smuggling of pork

In span of 5 years

MANILA, Philippines – The government has lost P9 billion worth of tax revenues in the past five years due to unabated technical pork smuggling, according to hog farmers and meat producers.

“Based on the report of our trading partners, around 202 million kilos of pork have been smuggled into the country for more than five years now. This translates to about P9 billion in lost government revenues. Yet technical smuggling remains unabated,” the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NFHFI) chaired by Vicente Mercado and the Samahang Industriya ng Agricultura and the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines Inc. (Pro-pork) said.

The group claims that at least 80,000 backyard hog raisers and their families have lost their livelihoods because of technical smuggling of pork and other agricultural products.

They warn that allied sectors like corn and palay (unhusk rice) producers would feel the repercussions if the backyard hog industry is left to die.

“In a span of six years, the backyard hog industry’s inventory dropped from 9.54 million heads to 7.95 million heads,” the NFHFI, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, and Pro-pork said.

They said “misdeclaration” is still rampant as pork meat is misdeclared as offal, fat, or skin so that its tariff is only at five to 10 percent rather than 40 percent.

The group said last year alone, 70 percent of the pork imports were declared in the same way.

The umbrella groups of hog raisers and grain producers have lauded the passage of the Anti-Large-Scale Agricultural Smuggling Act, and have joined the strong clamor for President Aquino to immediately sign it into law. 

Abono Party-list Rep. Conrado Estrella III, principal author of the Anti Large-Scale Agricultural Smuggling Act in the House of Representatives, revealed that agricultural stakeholders – farmers, irrigators, hog raisers, grain producers and other allied sectors – are pinning their hopes on President Aquino’s immediate signing of the measure into law.

“We have to actively combat smuggling to curb, if not eradicate, this illegal activity completely. If farmers continue to lose revenue because of smuggled products flooding the market, backyard growers will close shop. No one will want to raise hogs, poultry, and livestock if they cannot make money from them. No one will want to plant rice or other agricultural products,” Estrella said.