Imported meat helped Pinoys survive lockdown — MITA

MANILA, Philippines — Amid calls to stop them from bringing in their commodities, importers emphasized that pork and chicken meat, particularly mechanically deboned meat sourced abroad, helped Filipinos survive the pandemic.

In a letter, the Meat Importers and Traders Association (MITA) thanked the Department of Agriculture for allowing the continued importation of pork and poultry meat, saying such a move is the correct policy.

MITA president Jess Cham said over 85 percent of the population belongs to the CDE economic classes and thus are not able to afford the price of locally produced chicken and pork meat.

This is also the reason for the higher demand for processed meat and low-cost pork by-products.

During the three month-lockdown, canned products were nearly wiped out from the grocery shelves prompting manufacturers to ramp up production.

Small and medium enterprises have also grown using pork skin for chicharon, jowls for bagnet, MDM, pork fat and offal for longganisa and siomai, among others.

“It is worth mentioning that without MDM and pork byproducts for processed meat, the country may not have survived the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 lockdown,” Cham said.

“These low-cost food products have benefitted the middle and lower economic classes tremendously,” he said.

Majority or about 70 percent of total imports was composed of MDMs, fats, offals, and rinds used by industrial processors. MDM is used as raw material by meat processors and is not locally available.

Several agriculture groups and producers have been calling on the government to temporarily stop imports as the lockdown imposed has caused a downturn in the country’s socio-economic activities, including a decrease in demand of poultry products.

The high poultry prices during the last quarter of 2019 has incentivized broiler growers to produce, while hog producers hit by the African swine fever shifted to chicken production, thus, the current oversupply in the chicken.

However, the pandemic, the lockdown and port congestion happened.

“It is nobody’s fault, so let us not play the blame game. Things probably would have been different were it not for the pandemic,” Cham said.

Producers assure fair prices for pork and poultry meat, but MITA wonders how many of the consumers can actually afford P180 per kilogram for chicken and P250 a kilo for pork.

“We should not rely on well-intentioned assurances, but on the well-established law of supply and demand. The producers should recognize that it is not only they, but the entire economy that is hurting,” Cham said.

“Now as the country and economy try to recover, producers should not exploit this situation to advance their protectionist agenda, but allow everyone, importers and producers alike, to heal as one,” he said.

Further, MITA said imported pork and poultry still remain a small proportion of local production and are vital sources of raw material not only for meat processors, large and small, but also for the hospitality and tourism sector.

Hog raisers with a production cost of P85 to P90 per kilo are selling at farmgate price of P130 per kilo and above. Return on investment for the six-month production cycle was easily 40 percent, which means annual return would be over 80 percent.

Meanwhile, a five percent return on a 30-day production cycle for broiler translates to 60 percent annual return.

“Would every business enjoy such ROI? The producers will not let us forget the abnormal lows, but never mention the regular highs,” Cham said.

“Unfortunately, most of the producers did not utilize their profits to upgrade, but chose to maintain their current business models of selling live animals. As a result, even as the hospitality sector and general economy grew, they could not offer high-value cuts to the market and move up the value chain,” he said.