The Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Tuesday that it will blacklist all traders who failed to use their minimum access volume (MAV) allocation for imported pork and chicken this year.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said he found out during the stakeholders’ meeting last Friday that about 43 percent of the 54,000 metric tons MAV for pork has not been used. Of the 23,490 MT for poultry, Piñol said the unutilized volume is at 41 percent.
“Under the rules governing the MAV, if you do not use your import permit, I have the power to cancel it,” he said in a news briefing in Pasay City. “Importers usually wait for ‘ber’ months when prices improve before using their allocation.”
Piñol said he has directed Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Ariel T. Cayanan to compile the list of importers who have not used their MAV allocation.
“Those who did not import their allocation will be banned from importing pork and chicken,” he said.
Following the discovery of unused MAV volume, Piñol said the DA is withdrawing its proposal to allow the importation of 10,000 MT of pork at lower tariffs.
He said, however, that the DA would review in succeeding months if there is a need to augment pork supply during the holiday season.
SSG duty on poultry
The agriculture chief said he would also request to reimpose the special safeguard (SSG) duty on chicken imports as supply remains ample to meet domestic demand. Piñol said he would write a letter to Customs Commissioner Isidro S. Lapeña to formalize his request.
Piñol earlier asked Lapeña, through Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, to temporarily lift the SSG duty on poultry imports as a way to ease inflation.
He also said he would sign on Tuesday the amended Fisheries Administrative Order 195, Series of 1999, to allow the importation of round scad, or galunggong. The frozen fish imports would be levied with a 5-percent tariff, according to Piñol.
The importation of frozen fish, according to Piñol, will be “institutionalized,” as imports will be allowed during the closed fishing season during October to March. For this year, the importation would start immediately and would be allowed until March 2019.
“The amendment will involve allowing importers to bring the volume to the market. This will support our conservation efforts and, at the same time, stabilize the price and supply of fish in the market,” he said.
“Fishermen will be allowed to import so that they could earn something during closed-fishing season. Market vendors will be allowed also to import to ensure that the volume would go straight to the wet markets,” Piñol added.
In line with this, he said the DA would issue a two-tier suggested retail price for fisheries products: one for locally produced fish and one for the imports.