Pork producers urge government to form team vs smuggling

MANILA, Philippines — Pork producers have asked the government to form an anti-smuggling task force to check the rampant smuggling of agricultural products in the country.

In a statement, the Agriculture Sector Alliance of the Philippines (AGAP) and the Pork Producers of the Philippines (PPP) said the unabated technical smuggling through undervaluation and misdeclaration of imported frozen pork, chicken and other agricultural products by importers and smugglers has resulted in about P40 billion in revenue losses yearly for the government and caused untold sufferings to farmers and consumers.

Nicanor Briones, AGAP president and PPP vice president, noted that losses in revenue would have helped farmers from the effects of the African swine fever (ASF) amid the pandemic.

“Had the government heeded calls to pay farmers P10,000 for each hog afflicted with ASF, this would encourage them to declare if their hogs were infected and give them opportunity to expand and repopulate (hogs) to start all over again,” Briones said.

He also expressed alarm that the ASF continues to spread as many cases remain unreported by hog raisers.

Among the steps recommended to the government by the two groups are that the Department of Agriculture (DA) should put a price cap of P160 to P180 per kilo on imported pork products in the same way that it has put a price ceiling on such local products in public market and it should conduct a food summit immediately rather than in April so that farmers and consumers’ woes would be alleviated.

Imported frozen pork and chicken should not be left exposed in the market since these may be contaminated by bacteria, virus and salmonella that are detrimental to consumers’ health, producers said.

Briones warned that pork supply from the Visayas and Mindanao would be depleted even before the vaccine against the ASF would be discovered if the DA would continue its slow style in addressing the crisis.