INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The country’s biggest group of meat importers on Monday opposed Sen. Francis Pangilinan’s proposal to bring pork tariffs back to their original levels, saying the tariff cuts must be given time to bring down meat prices in the market.
Jesus Cham, president of Meat Importers and Traders Association, said meat prices were already lower against their levels before the government reduced pork tariff rates to a low of 5 percent from a high of 40 percent and raised the import ceiling that may be slapped with these lower tariffs.
Price monitoring reports showed that frozen pork ham and pork belly were being sold for P230 to P250 a kilo and P300 to P340 a kilo as of Monday, respectively.
Prices were at an average of P330 a kilo for local pork ham and P370 a kilo for pork belly.