Producers initiate national campaign to push local pork

CEBU, Philippines —  The Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines (PPFP) is bracing for a possible decline in market demand going forward, owing to several issues that threatened the profitability of stakeholders. 

“There is a real threat to the country’s hog industry now. First, when the ASF hit our biggest producers in Luzon then Mindanao, a lot of farmers were discouraged from going back to farming. And now the pandemic is also affecting the market further hurting the already ailing local pork business,” said Rolando E. Tambago, president of the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines.

This prompted stakeholders to launch a national campaign to promote local pork.

PPFP and its allied industries launched a national campaign with the aim to help the local pork production amid the slowing down of consumption and continued threat of the African Swine Fever.

The country’s economy is not expected to recover soon from the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic so consumption of pork is expectedly low, but industry leaders are not resting on their laurels just waiting for things to get better.

“Making matters worse is the increased Minimum Access Volume of pork importation from only 54,210 metric tons (MT) to 254,210 MT as approved by President Rodrigo R. Duterte,” Tambago added.

Tambago said these challenges may ultimately discourage hog farmers and may decide to stop producing hogs, which in the long run may cause the country to rely more on imported pork products.

“This is why we decided to launch the campaign. We want to push for the local pork products by making Filipino consumers aware of the benefits of consuming locally produced products, not just in their health but to the country’s sustainable food production as well,” he said.

He added that every kilo of pork that a consumer buys, supports eight other sectors within the supply value chain of the industry.

The campaign, which will mostly be done through the online platform, was officially launched last September 1, 2021 through the organization’s official Facebook Page.

“Launching a campaign at this time of pandemic is challenging, but necessary. So we decided it will be done through the online platform capitalizing on our Facebook Page. Because this will be a running and continuous campaign, we are also now developing our own website where we can put in more information about the country’s hog industry and our efforts to keep the industry afloat and eventually grow it,” Tambago explained.

The team started with a campaign logo carrying a fresh green color to evoke freshness of locally produced pork products. Then it carries the message “Eat Pinoy Pork” and “Tatak Fresh.”

“The primary message of the campaign is “Mas Malinis, Mas Masarap, ang Sariwa”. We wanted to make the consumers know that locally produced pork is assured safe from contamination, more tasty because it has not been stored in cold storages for a long time,” said Tambago.

The federation has a total of 48 affiliated associations all over the country and Tambago said they are confident that the campaign will go a long way with the support of all their partner organizations.

“We will be producing information materials including posters and videos for the campaign. As of now, we already have the commitment of many of our members and partners in the industry to help push for this promotion and get the message across.”

After launching the campaign, other industries like the chicken and egg farmers have also joined in the cause by also releasing their version of the campaign logo still bearing the same green color.

“They wanted to join and also promote their products so they asked me for the template of the campaign logo and made their own adaptation with the texts “Eat Pinoy Food” “Tatak Fresh” and “Support Pinoy Farmers”. This only shows that the local farming industry is now making an effort to push for local products and we are glad to be the organization that started it,” said Tambago.

Tambago invites everyone to support the country’s agricultural industries by supporting local farmers.

“The best way to support local farmers is by buying local products. Local pork, local chicken, local grains. We should start supporting our own because that is the only way we can ensure a future with sustainable food supply,” he said.