MANILA, Philippines — Meat importers are urging the government to ease bans on the importation of poultry products by implementing zonal bans instead of country-wide restrictions due to the tightening supply of poultry.
In a letter to Agriculture Secretary William Dar, the Meat Importers and Traders Association (MITA) said the supply situation of poultry products has become very tight due to the numerous importation bans in countries with reported cases of the H5N8 or bird flu.
Recently, the Department of Agriculture (DA) issued a temporary ban on the importation of domestic and wild birds and their products, including poultry meat, day-old chicks, eggs and semen originating from the United Kingdom.
It was an expansion of the previously imposed ban on England due to the ongoing outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian influenza or HPAI.
MITA president Jess Cham told The STAR earlier that the tighter supply in the market, brought about by the UK ban, translates into higher raw material cost for processors and consequently for consumers.
In line with constraints on supply, MITA is urging the DA to allow the importation of poultry products from HPAI-affected countries as long as the products are from HPAI-free zones.
The group added that each container load must also have been individually tested and found negative for HPAI.
MITA said the accompanying international health certificate should include the attestation that “the consignment has been tested for HPAI detection in meat using RT-PCR in an accredited and approved laboratory in [the country of origin] and no traces of HPAI have been found.”
“We recall that this procedure was last adopted in 2017. Your approval will go a long way in ensuring the continuous supply of poultry,” MITA said.
Sought for comment on the proposal, Dar told The STAR that this is already under study.
Apart from MITA, the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI) had also proposed the imposition of a zonal instead of country-wide ban.
Earlier, The STAR reported that the UK ban on poultry products could lead to higher prices of processed meat due to the tighter supply of mechanically deboned meat (MDM) of chicken as well as the rising costs from other countries.
“The temporary ban on the UK will worsen the dire situation we are in now. The UK, together with the Netherlands and Germany which have also been banned for several months now, comprise about 60 percent of our MDM chicken supply. This is a major source of animal protein for processors,” PAMPI vice president Jerome Ong said.
“Supply has been severely affected and prices from other countries have increased by more than 100 percent. Our inventories are running out and if supply does not stabilize, the prices of processed meat such as canned meat loaf, sausage, hotdogs, siomai, etc. will increase by more than 20 to 25 percent,” Ong added.
Latest data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showed that a total of 1.66 million kilos of chicken products were imported from the UK as of Jan. 31.
This accounts for nearly 10 percent of the 16.9 million kilos of chicken imported during the period.
BAI data also showed that total deboned chicken meat imports from the UK amounted to 1.23 million kilos in January.
Ong said the rising prices of pork, chicken, fish and other food staples are already beyond the reach of many consumers who are still reeling from the impact of the pandemic based on the inflation rates going up to 4.7 percent in February.
“Our products are the most affordable alternative to fresh meat and have become food staple for millions of Filipinos. That’s why our sector is doing its best to keep prices low as our service to the nation and the ban on poultry will soon hinder us from doing so,” Ong said.
He added the plants and processes of PAMPI members have been certified by the DA and the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) as safe and sanitary and there has never been local transmission of HPAI attributable to these frozen materials they use.
Ong stressed that all their products are processed or undergo heat treatment of 80-120 degrees Celsius for a duration of 40-70 minutes.
The World Organization for Animal Health had said that the HPAI virus is inactivated at temperatures of 74 degrees C for one minute.
“We hope they act favorably on our request, as this has become a matter of survival for our industry and to avert further inflation,” Ong said.
Last month, the DA also imposed a temporary ban on the importation of domestic and wild birds and their products from the Czech Republic as well as the Russian Federation following reported outbreaks from the virus.