Meat processors seek gov’t help

Meat processors in the country are asking the government to help them be more competitive starting this year.

Felix Tiukinhoy, Philippine Association of Meat Processors of the Philippines (Pampi) president, said yesterday that the Aquino administration were leaning toward the hog raisers and taking for granted the rest of the industries and sectors in the chain including the meat processors.

“We are now working and organizing ourselves to become more competitive by adopting global standards in meat processing, however, we think that government has a critical role in helping us that is why we are calling on them to also give attention to our industry and look at areas where they can help us,” Tiukinhoy said.

He cited the order tightening the accreditation guidelines of meat importers recently.

He said the Department of Agriculture should have also reached out to their sector.

“Early this year, we sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala on what we think of the newly implemented Administrative Order No. 09-2013 that has set tighter guidelines on the accreditation of importers, where we are also sourcing our raw materials from. This resulted on a shortage of meat and affecting our production,” Tiukinhoy said.

AO 09-2013

Under the AO 09-2013, new importers cannot bring in meat products, including Indian buffalo meat, for a three-year period. It also raised the minimum paid-up capital for new importers to P5million and has already required an importer to provide the government with a list of their customers.

Tiukinhoy said that they already told Secretary Alcala that the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) began implementing the administrative order without even consulting Pampi and other stakeholders. This resulted to local hog raisers having more control of the domestic market as well as affecting the market prices of meat.

“Since its implementation, we saw some of our colleagues stop operations because they can no longer operate at a level where they can still achieve profits. That is a cause for alarm on our part. If the accreditation process becomes more stringent, we will be forced to source locally and might increase our prices just to achieve balance in our revenues and profits,” Tiukinhoy said.

OPTIONS

Tiukinhoy, who is also the president and chief executive officer of Virginia Foods, Inc., a Cebu-based meat processor, said that for businessmen like him, raising the prices is the last option because it affects their market shares and may in the longterm affect their competitiveness.

Raising prices or sacrificing quality is just two of the immediate options that a businessman can think of to remain competitive and according to Tiukinhoy, the local processors don’t want to resort to these options because the consumers are very discriminating and will really notice any changes in the product quality or prices and would then switch brands.

Based on combined figures from all the 35 meat processors in the country, the Philippines consumes an average of P200 billion processed meat a year, of which about 80 percent to 90 percent are supplied by the 35 meat processors.