The Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. asked the Tariff Commission to retain the most favored nation tariff rates on imported raw materials for the meat processing industry to keep food prices manageable and help ease the inflation rate.
Tariff Commission chairperson Marilou Mendoza called for a public hearing on Sept. 19 to discuss the petition of Pampi to retain the MFN tariff rates on mechanically deboned or separated meat of chicken at 5 percent; meat and edible offal of turkeys not cut in pieces, frozen at 20 percent; mechanically deboned or separated meat of turkey at 5 percent; and meat cuts and edible offal of turkeys, frozen, other than livers or mechanically deboned or separated meat at 20 percent.
“We would like to clarify our position on this petition that we are limiting our request for the retention of the prevailing tariff rates of 5 percent and 20 percent for poultry and fowl and we are not including other non-rice products in our petition,” Pampi executive director Francisco Buencamino said in the petition.
Pampi also sent copies of the petition to Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and National Economic and Development Authority director-general Ernesto Pernia.
MDM is a term loosely interchanged with mechanically separated meat or mechanically separated meat of poultry. It is a paste-like meat product produced by forcing pureed or ground beef, pork, turkey or chicken, under high pressure through a sieve or similar device to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue.
The Philippines imported 189.1 million kilograms of MDM poultry in 2017, up from 168.7 million kg in 2016.
“The use of MDM in processed products has allowed us to maintain affordable, protein-filled, wholesome processed meats which benefit the consumers and its use continues to be regulated by the National Meat Inspection Service,” Buencamino said.
The group said MDM was not commercially produced locally or produced in very insufficient quantities. “No local entity will be prejudiced by its importation. We can support this by official import data from the DA,” said Buencamino, citing the absence of any local commercial plant producing MDM.
Poultry growers, however, want the government to impose higher tariff rates on imported MDM. Pampi said an increase in tariff rates from 5 percent to 40 percent would escalate prices of hotdogs and canned meat products that contain MDM by 12 percent to 17 percent.
“But if the tariff on MDM stays at 5 percent, this price increase can be avoided. However, other factors such as the strong dollar vs. all currencies including Philippine peso, fuel cost increase, labor cost increase, and tin can cost increase will put pressure on our costs,” Buencamino said.
“While Pampi members have tried holding off-market prices to cope with the increased costs of production/manufacture, we may not be able to hold off much longer. The disappearance of processed meats from the markets will allow wet market prices of table grade meats go through the roof,” he said.
“The impact of the increase in prices of processed meats will not stay only with processed meats. Other sectors, particularly the resellers' groups such as supermarkets and institutional distributors, speak of the collateral damage of possible hoarding of goods, a scenario predicted by these resellers. The increased cost of doing business will discourage institutional growth, foreign direct investments to fuel the need to feed our ever-increasing population count,” Buencamino said.
Buencamino said raising the duty on an ingredient that was so widely used might be ill-timed and ill-advised and would make the Filipino consumers suffer.
The local meat processing industry produces more than P300 billion in sales annually and provides direct employment to 150,000 people.
