ROSALES—They are slowly dying.

About 20 percent of the backyard hog raisers in the country, which comprise 70 percent of the Philippine’s hog industry, have been forced to close shop in the last couple of years due to unfair competition from imported meat, according to the president of Northern Luzon Hog Raisers Cooperative (NLHRC).

Engr. Rosendo So, NLHRC president and head of the partylist Abono that represents agricultural sector concerns in Congress, said it is not the importation per se that is killing the backyard industry but the “misdeclaration” of pork parts being brought in.

So said in 2011 the total imported pork was 169 million kilograms and of this, 114 million kgs were declared as offal.

Offal, mainly the internal organs of pigs used to process meat products, are subject to lower taxes and not counted as part of the Minimum Access Volume (MAV).

Of the 169 million kgs of imported meat last year, only 25 percent or 42 million kgs were declared under the MAV.

The collected tariff from MAV, under the agreement signed by the Philippines with the World Trade Organization Agreement, funneled to the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund is supposed to support farmers.

So said the continued decline of backyard piggeries is reflected in data that show 9.78 million heads counted in 2009 had gone down to 8. million heads in 2011 and further down to 7.8 million as of March 2012.

“The government has to do something to arrest the continuing decline in backyard hog raising,” So said.

PUNISHMENT

So said hog farmers are calling on the government to go after and punish the importers and the government personnel responsible for the unabated “misdeclaration.”

Abono has submitted a list of the top 20 importers of offal to Congress for possible action.

“There is an importer whose capitalization from SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is less than PhP100,000.00  but it imports millions of pesos worth of meat here in the Philippines,” So pointed out.

He also noted that the big companies that are known for making processed meat are not even in the top 20.

“RFM that ranked 47th and San Miguel Foods that rank 84th are the true processors, but ang layo nila,” So said.

He wondered how the in the top 20, mostly minimally capitalized, are allowed to import so much meat.

Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) records show that in 2005, the country imported 50 million kgs of pork. It increased to 114 million kgs in 2009 and again rose to 178 million kgs in 2010.

The BAI issues the Veterinary Quarantine Certificate (VQC) for imported meat.

So pointed out that imported meat was initially allowed to satisfy the raw material needs of meat processors but much of it is now being sold in wet markets all over the country.

The imported meat commands cheaper price than freshly slaughtered meat or ‘warm meat’ sold in the wet markets.

“The unfair competition from imported meat forced the backyard piggeries to close,” So said.—Eva Visperas

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