DTI backs lifting of ban on importation of chicken products from Brazil

Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez. (File photo by YANCY LIM / Presidential Photographers Division)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said Monday it supports the lifting of the temporary ban on the importation of chicken products from Brazil due to reports of its poultry products being contaminated with coronavirus.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said he has already asked Agriculture Secretary William Dar for the lifting of the ban, noting that it may “threaten” the country’s food supply.

This came after the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI) reportedly warned that the government ban on poultry products, including mechanically deboned meat from Brazil will lead to a shortage of raw materials and eventually higher prices of canned food products in the Philippines.

“We support po iyong position na iyon. Kasi iyong basehan daw po ng  pag-ban ng importation ng mga chicken and chicken products mula sa Brazil ay wala pong scientific basis na ito po ay may dalang COVID at makakahawa,” Lopez said in a televised press briefing.

(The basis for the ban of chicken and chicken products imports from Brazil has no scientific basis.)

“Kaya ho kami may sulat po kay Secretary Dar para ho sana i-lift na uli iyong ban na iyon, dahil kung hindi ay mati-threaten po ang ating food supply,” he added.

(That is why we wrote Secretary Dar to lift again the ban, because if not, our food supply with be threatened.)

The Department of Agriculture imposed a temporary ban on the importation of poultry meat originating from Brazil on Aug. 14 following reports that SARS-COV 2―the coronavirus that causes COVID-19―was detected in a surface sampling conducted in chicken meat imported from Brazil to China.

JPV