go through Kyle Aristopher T. Atienza, reporter
The Department of Agriculture (DA) said Wednesday it will raise the recommended maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) for pork, which soared in the election season with lower compliance among suppliers.
“It’s called a step back, two steps forward,” Livestock Constante J. Palabrica’s deputy agriculture minister told reporters at a industry event on Wednesday. He added that the agency is looking at a better way to deal with high pork prices.
“We're going to bring it up, we're going to look at it, and then come up with a revised plan,” he said.
The MSRP is set to P300 per kilogram, P350 for the whole pig, P350 for the shoulders and hind legs of the pork, and p380 for the pork belly.
However, the agency has complained about lower MSRP compliance since its first week of implementation, now below 30%.
Mr Palabrica attributes the high retail price of pork to high agricultural prices, up to P290 per kilogram.
He said demand increased during the election season surpassed the low supply caused by African pig fever (ASF). “This is the law of supply and demand.”
“So, it is expected that MSRP may be revised while we are looking at how to make it really effective,” he added.
Currently, the agency will focus on buying pigs (in P230 per kilogram) from pig farms at a lower price and allocating them to major slaughterhouses.
He refers to Food Terminal, Inc. (FTI) direct contribution strategy for driving with Thai company Charoen Pokphand Foods plc (CP Foods). FTI provides Caloocan slaughterhouses with 100 live pigs every day from CP Foods under its pilot program that began in April.
“The first thing we asked for is 100 pigs a day,” Palabrika said. “And then by next month it will be 200. Then we're targeting about 500 pigs,” he said. [a month]. ”
He added that the government has also looked at similar strategies used by other farm companies, including Pilmico Foods Corp.
“We are looking for other farms that can offer us our own prices,” he said. “If we can get a price for P230, we can offer it on the market at a lower price.”
agriculturefIsir said the direct source plan of about $500-$700 million refers to the loss of FTI because it sells pigs at the same price, while the partner companies shoulder the delivery costs of the slaughterhouse.
He added: “If we get it for the P230 price, you will also buy it at the P230. Then, for logistics, we have a discounted price.”
Mr Parabrika said the Philippines’ pork supply is stable. “We have enough pork supply. But the limited quantity is local pork. On imported pork, we have a lot of supply.”
Pork imports in February reached 53.598 million kilograms, up from 3.8994 million kilograms a year ago.
According to data from the Animal Industry Bureau, as of March 28, there were 39 cases in ASF cases in 42 villages in the Philippines as of March 14. Since its first outbreak in 2019, more than 6,200 villages have been affected by the ASF case.
Mr Palabrica said they expect to launch a Vietnamese ASF vaccine commercially by the end of the year.
The Ministry of Agriculture said earlier that it is working with the pig industry to increase herd by at least 2 million pigs per year by 2028 to return to pre-ASF levels.
Regionalized Treaty
Meanwhile, Mr Palabrica said the Philippines is in talks with several countries as it implements a regionalization agreement for importing on-site chickens and their products.
He said Thailand, Taiwan, Paraguay and Chile are seeking to include it in the deal, which aims to remove a nationwide ban on trading partners from dealing with a bird flu outbreak.
Under this agreement, the Philippines will prohibit imports of poultry only from specific areas affected by bird flu, allowing imports from areas or areas without animal diseases.
Parabrika said the United States, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Brazil and the Netherlands are among the countries recognized by the Philippine government.
The DA earlier said the nationwide ban restricted the sources of day chicken, parent stocks and poultry meat, which led to higher prices.
The three-phase process to incorporate the protocol includes submitting documents on veterinary supervision, disease surveillance, traceability, control measures and zoning protocols.
The application will be reviewed by the risk assessment team.
The regionalization agreement will then be drafted and finalized after a successful assessment, outlining the import terms and conditions, including the revised veterinary certificate.
The agreement also provides for the reporting of consecutive diseases and a biennial review and provides reasons for termination of undeclared outbreaks.
The import volume of Filipino chickens reached 31.7 million kilograms from 3.2426 million kilograms a year ago.
