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More
end-users of buffalo meat can now bring in carabeef from
India themselves following the Department of
Agriculture’s (DA) release of an administrative order
allowing them to import the commodity.
Industry
sources said this is the implication of Administrative
Order (AO) 20 dated May 26, 2008, issued by Agriculture
Secretary Arthur Yap.
Buffalo
meat, or carabeef, is the main raw material used in
producing processed food like hot dogs, corned beef and
luncheon meat.
“The DA
hereby revive DA Administrative Order 1 Series of 1996
[January 12, 1996] allowing duly accredited and National
Meat Inspection Service (NMIS)-registered meat
processors, meat traders, hotels and restaurants, and
other end-users to import fresh frozen boneless and
deglanded manufacturing-grade and table-cut buffalo
meat,” said AO 20.
The DA
said the importation will be done in accordance with the
guidelines set by the Office Internationale des
Epizooties (OIE) on the importation of buffalo meat.
The
importation will be subject to the specific guidelines
to be issued by the NMIS.
Sources
said the industry had opposed AO 1 issued by the DA in
1996, causing the department to put on hold its plans to
expand the importation of buffalo meat.
Currently, the major importers of buffalo meat are meat
processors like the Philippine Association of Meat
Processors Inc., which accounts among its members food
giant San Miguel Corp.
The
revival of the proposal to expand the importation of
buffalo meat comes at a time when the price of the
commodity has shot up by 30 percent to 40 percent due to
a shortage.
The race
by countries to stock up on crucial food supply in
recent months is weighing heavily on food-importing
countries like the Philippines which are forced to pay
more for the food they procure. |
