THE Philippines, the world’s eighth largest consumer of pork, imported a record nearly 135,000 metric tons (MT) of pork bellies and cuts in the first half—more than quadruple from a year earlier—as the country rushed to boost domestic supply and temper rising prices, government data showed.
The 367-percent increase in the imports of pork bellies and cuts drove overall pork imports to expand by 176 percent to 277,850.59 MT from 100,745.261 MT in the first half of 2020, Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) data showed.
BAI data also showed pork imports from January to June already being 8.5 percent higher than the total pork imported by the country in 2020 of 256,017.458 MT.
Industry sources told the BusinessMirror that total pork imports this year may breach the record volume in 2018 of 392,154.307 MT given the current growth rate of imports across all cuts.
Foreign pork suppliers are already upbeat about exporting record volumes of pork to the Philippines this year as the country is in dire need of supply, with domestic production dented by the spread of African swine fever.
(Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/06/28/pork-shipments-to-phl-could-hit-record-high-this-year-suppliers/)
The twin measures of the government to reduce pork tariffs to as low as 10 percent and increase the minimum access volume (MAV) of pork by 200,000 MT also whetted the appetite of both importers and exporters. The reduction of pork tariffs and increase in MAV only affects primal pork cuts, such as bellies, hams and shoulders.
The twin measures, initiated by the Economic Development Cluster (EDC), aim to boost domestic pork supply and meat inflation that drove overall inflation to accelerate further in recent months. With the twin measures in place, the Department of Agriculture (DA) aims to pull down the retail price of pork below P300 per kilogram from the current range of P310 to P390 per kilogram.
The DA pegged the country’s pork supply shortfall this year at about 400,000 MT.
The country’s meat inflation slowed to 19.2 percent in June 2021 from 22.1 percent in April and May, which, officials pointed out, is a result of the twin measures that government implemented in April.
“The declining meat inflation points to the positive effects of Executive Orders [EO] 133 and 134. These are expected to further bring down meat prices during the second half of the year,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said recently.
Imports of pork bellies alone doubled to 26,753.354 MT from 13,006.932 MT while imports of pork cuts ballooned by 581 percent to 108,094.001 MT from 15,872.893 MT, based on latest BAI data.
Canada was the top supplier of combined imports of pork bellies and pork cuts as it accounted for 29 percent of total volume or about 39,701.563 MT, followed by the United States at a combined volume of 25,400.646 MT, based on BAI data.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes