Smugglers killing pork industry, say producers

At least half of the livestock producers in the country are bound to close shop due to the failure of agriculture and customs officials to check the inflow of smuggled pork being dumped in the markets.

“If the government cannot offer any solution to this, by November probably 50 percent of all backyard hog raisers will stop their business,” said Agriculture Sector Alliance of the Philippines  party-list Representative Nicanor Briones in an interview over dzBB Sunday. “Right now, around 20 percent have already quit.”

In the same interview, Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon refuted claims that he has done nothing to address the hog raisers’ concerns. Biazon said he had ordered a  100-percent inspection of reefer vans and imposed tight monitoring, which importers said had already affected their supply flow.

“It’s hard to claim that there is no more smuggling because we have crooked officials and employees. The solution to smuggling is not just in the apprehension but also in plugging the system,” said Biazon.

He proposed that the Bureau of Customs  shift to automated or paperless transactions from the current  manual processing or person-to-person transactions that are prone to abuse.

Biazon also suggested that the hog raisers look into the high cost of production, which could be the reason for their inability to compete with cheap imports.

Briones estimated that local pork producers had lost P8.5 billion from July last year to February this year, or more than P1 billion every month after the unabated smuggling of pork drove down farm gate prices from P110 per kilo to P90 per kilo, or an average of P500 per pig.

He said the two-day “pig holiday” which ended Sunday was not enough to highlight the industry’s protest against the authorities. He said hog raisers were considering a longer sales moratorium of between five and seven days if the agriculture and customs officials continued to fail in their duties.

“We know these protest actions are hurting consumers but sometimes you have to drink bitter medicine to get cured,” said Briones.

Briones said his group would continue to seek a dialogue with President Benigno Aquino III to stop the influx of cheap pork which was not only hurting pig raisers but poultry producers as well.