The Department of Agriculture (DA) will set up a technical working group (TWG) that will scrutinize the proposal of the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) to increase its meat-inspection fees.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the goal of the TWG is to determine a “reasonable” rate hike that would be acceptable to both the NMIS and stakeholders in the livestock and poultry sectors.
Piñol made the pronouncement following his meeting with stakeholders in the livestock sector on November 8.
“We agreed to form a TWG. It will be composed of the NMIS and stakeholders in the livestock sector,” Piñol told reporters in an interview on Wednesday. “The stakeholders are not against the idea of increasing the fees. As to how much [would be the increase], that will be discussed by the TWG.”
Stakeholders in the livestock sector, including hog raisers belonging to the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines (ProPork), are opposing the government’s plan to increase meat-inspection fees, as this could make pork more expensive.
ProPork President Edwin G. Chen earlier told the BusinessMirror that the proposal of the NMIS to increase its antemortem and postmortem fees will only burden consumers.
“There is no reason for this rate hike. They cannot use inflation as a reason for it,” Chen said. “They will only burden the consuming public and accelerate inflation. There is no justification for the rate hikes. For what they will use the money?”
Piñol also disclosed that stakeholders were mum when he pointed out that nobody opposed the importation of meat products from Brazil due to the threat of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) before the government banned shipments from the Latin American country.
“There was no comment on my observation that we’ve been importing from Brazil since 2012, and that no one has raised this issue before,” he said. “The issue here is not whether we should import from Brazil. The issue here is whether we should lift the suspension or not.”
Piñol added the government would first focus on addressing the salmonella issue, which prompted the DA to slap a temporary ban on Brazilian meat imports.
“The technical team, which inspected meat plants in Brazil, has already made its recommendation, and this will be submitted to the accreditation review board [ARB]. The ARB will submit the recommendation to me once I get back from Vietnam,” he said.
The DA chief will join President Duterte who will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Vietnam on November 9.
The lifting of the temporary ban on meat imports from Brazil will depend on the recommendation of the ARB, according to Piñol.
A source who is privy to the results of the inspection on foreign meat establishments (FMEs) in Brazil told the BusinessMirror that the FMEs were found to be “compliant” with Philippine standards.
The source said 23 FMEs in Brazil were inspected by the DA mission team from September 18 to 29. Of the total number of FMEs, 10 were found to have been involved in the shipment of meat products tainted with salmonella to the Philippines in July.
Earlier, ProPork warned against lifting the ban on meat imports from Brazil, which has been accorded the FMD-free but with vaccination status by the World Organisation for Animal Health.
The group argued that importing meat products from Brazil may “endanger” the local hog sector and the country’s “FMD-free without vaccination” status.