NFHFI to seek repeal of AO expanding

importation of buffalo meat from India

By Jennifer A. Ng

THE National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NFHFI) is set to ask the Department of Agriculture (DA) to repeal an administrative order (AO) which seeks to expand the importation of buffalo meat from India.

Instead of allowing restaurants and other end-users of buffalo meat or carabeef, to import from India, NFHFI president Albert Lim Jr. said the DA should impose a total ban on carabeef importation.

Buffalo meat is the main raw material used in producing processed food like hot dogs, corned beef and luncheon meat.

The DA issued AO 20 reviving an order issued in 1996 which allows hotels, restaurants and other end-users to import fresh frozen boneless and deglanded manufacturing-grade and table-cut buffalo meat.

“We are dismayed with the AO. The government should impose a total ban on carabeef importation since not all areas in India have been certified free of the foot-and-mouth disease,” said Lim in a telephone interview.

An executive from the meat processing industry, however, debunked this claim, saying it is safe to import buffalo meat from India.

Lim said his group is set to submit a position paper to the DA opposing AO 20.

In the AO, the DA assured that the importation would be done in accordance with the guidelines set by the Office Internationale des Epizooties. The importation will be subject to the specific guidelines to be issued by the National Meat Inspection Service, an attached agency of the DA.

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.

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NFHFI to seek repeal of AO expanding importation of buffalo meat from India

THE National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NFHFI) is set to ask the Department of Agriculture (DA) to repeal an administrative order (AO) which seeks to expand the importation of buffalo meat from India.

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