MANILA: The government seized 250,000 kilograms, or 250 metric tons, of smuggled beef and pork in January to June this year, a senior official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said here the other day.
In a forum, dubbed as The Round table, Agriculture Undersecretary for Livestock Jose C. Reaño told editors and reporters of media companies under the ALC Group that the government’s antismuggling drive netted 10 containers of smuggled pork and beef.
“Smuggling of meat products has gone down in recent months,” said Reaño, who is in charge of the DA’s national livestock program.
He said the seized contraband was valued at less than P500 million, and would not significantly affect hog raisers and poultry growers.
Reaño added that there will be “no letup” in the DA’s implementation of antismuggling initiatives. He said the DA is continuously coordinating with the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to prevent the smuggling of meat products.
“We are exchanging notes with the BoC. The BOC also gives us access to inward foreign manifest, while we give them tips on importers with questionable business practices,” he said.
Reaño said the government’s anti-smuggling drive and the implementation of stringent sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, such as banning expired meat products, have encouraged hog raisers and poultry growers to increase their output.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the livestock subsector expanded by 5.2 percent in the second quarter. In the first semester, livestock output rose by 4.25 percent.
“At current prices the subsector’s gross receipts amounted to P62.2 billion. This represented a 1.59-percent increment from last year’s record,” the PSA said.
The poultry subsector, meanwhile, grew by 4.71 percent in the April-to-June period. Chicken boosted the subsector’s performance in the second quarter, posting a 5.08-percent increase in output. In the first half of the year, the gross output of the subsector went up by 5.03 percent.
“For the whole of 2015, the poultry subsector’s output could grow by 9 percent, while the livestock sector’s production could increase by 4.5 percent,” Reaño said.
Earlier, the United Broiler Raisers Association (Ubra) projected that the Philippines would produce 1 billion broilers this year.
Ubra Chairman Gregorio A. San Diego Jr. said the projected broiler production this year is 11 percent higher than the estimated 900 million birds produced by the local poultry industry in 2014.
Meanwhile, Reaño said the DA is currently bent on expanding the production of native hogs and chicken, as the government sets its sights on increasing its shipments of meat products to other countries.
