A group of poultry farm managers has criticized a Palace executive order that extended for another year the lower tariffs on imported pork, corn, and rice.
Elias Jose Inciong, president of the United Broiler Raisers Association, said Executive Order No. 50 issued by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. defeats the purpose for which it was designed.
EO 50 again reduced the levy on these commodities and pegged the tariff to so-called Most Favored Nation tariff rates.
The concession was supposed to expire by yearend and a similar missive had been issued to that effect since 2021. This marks the third time that Malacañang extended the tariff cuts.
“Since this is the third time, it means it doesn’t work. The purpose is to bring down prices or make it affordable, to stabilize prices and to diversify sources. Clearly, it has not worked. You know, it cannot be that every year you just extend,” Inciong said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
But the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) on Thursday said the extension of the reduced Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariff rates for key agricultural commodities such as pork, corn, and rice will ensure sufficient and affordable food supply for Filipinos in 2024.
With Darwin Amojelar
Under this new EO, the tariff rates for pork will remain at 15 percent in-quota and 25 percent out-quota; while corn will be at five percent in-quota and 15 percent out-quota; and rice at 35 percent for both in-quota and out-quota for the extended period.
NEDA Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said diversifying market sources will ensure sufficient and affordable food supply in the Philippines.
Mr. Marcos’ directive was in response to a recommendation made by his economic team who said that the still-elevated world prices warrant the scaling back of the tariff to their old rates to ease food price pressures that drove inflation to a peak of 8% this year. Inflation has since eased but remains way above the central bank’s 2% to 4% target zone.
Mr. Marcos approved the recommendation to maintain lower tariff rates on rice, corn, and pork until end-2024 to help keep prices affordable amid the El Niño phenomenon and the prevalence of the African Swine Fever.
Tariff cuts are meant to encourage imports to boost food supply, but often these food imports are sold at a cheaper price in the domestic market, competing with local producers’ prices.
Inciong expressed concern over the timing of the issuance of the EO, which was done while Congress was on a long holiday break.
“Under the law, this is supposed to be temporary—only when Congress is not in session can the president issue an executive order of this nature. And it has become the practice of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to wait for Congress to not be in session and proceed like a predator to intervene for importers,” he added.
Inciong lamented that the government—through agencies like the NEDA, Philippine Statistics Authority, and Department of Agriculture (DA)—should rally farmers and growers in an inclusive public consultation to close the gap between farmgate prices and those quoted by retailers.
“The prevailing price of liempo and kasim, respectively, would be ₱360 and ₱320 based on the DA Bantay Presyo price monitoring. And it has been, more or less, this way for the last three years,” he said.
“While imports come in at 2 dollars and 50 cents transaction cost, that would be less than ₱150 per kilo. There’s a huge gap there and we’re doing away tariffs… the importers are earning whilst they say are not,” he pointed out.
“So the intervention is not complete because it keeps on repeating the same situation where we are vulnerable to inflation. They need to address the production side… to address food inflation,” he added.
There is also a need for producers to gain access to accurate data—price points, production volume, and demand—so that growers can plan better.
There has been a supply glut in chicken meat as poultry farmers anticipated higher demand in the run-up to the Christmas holidays, but they overshoot the forecast demand so producers’ prices have been falling since September, Inciong said.
Frozen chicken from abroad exacerbates the situation, he added.
Inciong emphasized that there is a gap, or disconnection, between farmgate prices—whether it is port or chicken—and retail prices, adding that the transaction cost in farmgates are low but the retail prices for consumers remained at a high price.
“Therefore, it is not effective in bringing down consumer prices,” he said. With Darwin Amojelar