DA revising minimum access volume rules for pork imports
A public market stall selling pork products. —File photo by Grig C. Montegrande | Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is currently revising the minimum access volume (MAV) for pork.
“We are reformulating the rules for MAV. The DA’s Policy and Planning Office is already on the job, and they have to have an output by October this year,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Our MAV rules were written in 1996 and when I read it, I found a lot of room for improvement. So, we have to revise the MAV,” he added.
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According to Tiu Laurel, pork imported under the MAV quota enjoys a lower tariff of 15 percent compared to the regular rate of 25 percent—with MAV allocation totaling 55,000 metric tons (MT) and 30,000 MT set aside for meat processors to ensure lower-priced processed meat.
But in reviewing the MAV, Tiu Laurel said he discovered that 47 out of 130 quota holders account for 80 percent of the total allocation, while 22 of that 47 account for 70 percent of that volume.
“In reality, 22 MAV quota holders account for 55 percent of the total volume,” he explained, adding that many of those MAV quota are then often reused, inflating total import volume.
“The sad part about this is that consumers don’t benefit [from the] reduced tariff,” he said.
Hence, Tiu Laurel said he was looking to increase allocation to meat processors to 40,000 MT, with the balance to be set aside for Food Terminals Inc., which would allow it to have the resources to intervene in the market to stabilize pork prices.
Meanwhile, the DA has implemented a maximum suggested retail price for pork — P380 per kg of liempo and P350 a kilo of pigue and kasim — but admitted that compliance has so far been low.
