Hog raisers: Pork import, export data indicate signs of smuggling

DAGUPAN CITY—Local hog raisers raised doubts over the entry of pork into the Philippines from Canada, saying figures tend to show technical smuggling of meat from the Northern American country.

The Swine Development Council (SDC) said trade officials from Canada should explain the disparity in Canada’s pork exports to the Philippines in 2011 compared with the Philippines’ pork imports in the same year.

Citing data from the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade), Rosendo So, SDC director, said Canada shipped 29,692,335 kilograms of pork belly to Manila but Philippine import records showed that only 13,987,053 kg entered the country.

“Do the math. There is a difference of 15,705,282 kg of pork belly between what was supposedly shipped out of Canada and what arrived in the Philippines,” So said.

He said UN Comtrade data showed that Canada shipped 3,278,502 kg of pork offal (low-grade meat and animal parts like innards) but Philippine records showed that 12,801,883 kg entered the country, or a difference of 9,523,381 kg.

“It appears that shipments of imported pork belly from Canada are being passed off as pork offal to take advantage of the very low 5-percent tariff on offal as compared to the 40-percent tariff on pork belly,” he said. “The government lost tax revenues in this form of exploitation of the tiered tariff rates on imported pork.”

So, also chair of the party-list group Abono, said Canadian trade representatives should explain the disparity “to erase the impression that [the Canadian government] is tolerating its exporters who engage in questionable trade.”

So said he would ask Abono Rep. Robert Raymund Estrella, a member of the House committee on agriculture and food, to seek congressional investigation of the country’s meat importation.

Earlier, hog and poultry raisers in the country said they will hold Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to his promise that the government will not lift tariffs on imported meat products as a concession in its bid to extend a policy limiting rice imports.

So said easing the tariff on imported meat endangers the local backyard hog industry as cheap imported meat would flood the wet markets.

In a statement last week, Daniel Javellana Jr., chair of the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc., objected to the reduction of tariff rates for imported frozen meat from between 30 and 40 percent to 5 percent.

“Any reduction in the current tariff rates will substantially affect the viability of the hog industry,” he said. This means prime cuts can be imported legally and sold in wet markets at prices 25 to 35 percent lower than local meat, he said. Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon