STAKEHOLDERS WANT PORK IMPORTS BANNED
The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) has appealed to the government to suspend importation of pork until a genuine quarantine system is in place at customs borders.
The group said that such a measure would protect the local swine industry from the dreaded African swine fever (ASF).
Over the weekend, PCAFI president Danilo V. Fausto said the proposed importation ban also aims to ensure that proper import tariffs and duties would be paid.
According to Fausto, the Bureau of Customs (BoC) currently does not have the full capability to carry out strict biosecurity system that will guarantee that no imported meat products infected with ASF will enter the country.
These BoC deficiencies include the absence of refrigerated facilities where the meat products may be adequately inspected for quarantine systems by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and the system for proper collection of tariffs and duties.
The Bureau of Customs currently does not have the full capability to carry out strict biosecurity system that will guarantee that no imported meat products infected with ASF will enter the country.
If not addressed properly, these inadequacies can derail the implementation of proper animal and food safety along with proper revenue collection from meat imports.
“The current ‘make-do’ second border system inside the cold storage facility of the importer is meaningless in terms of proper collection of tariffs and duties, quarantine and food safety,” Fausto said.
Such government practice of allowing meat imports to be directly transported to the warehouse of importers before these are evaluated for quarantine procedures and charged with tariffs and duties have long been questioned by agriculture stakeholders.
“The Bureau of Customs has no refrigerated facilities within the Port of Manila which has prevented the Bureau of Animal Industry from implementing quarantine protocols,” Fausto said.
Poultry and livestock industry stakeholders have long recommended that all meat imports should just go through a single port with the necessary facilities for a full quarantine process.
The agriculture stakeholders have asserted the government’s role in implementing biosecurity systems against ASF will be crucial.
Likewise, all local government units (LGU) should consistently impose on all backyard hog raisers to obtain a business permit for their operations even as some LGU do not even know that hog backyard raisers exist in their jurisdiction.
LGU will have a critical role in this biosecurity system considering that nearly 70 percent of all hog production in the Philippines comes from backyard raisers.
“LGU should be held liable on the control of African swine fever within their area,” Fausto said.
At the same time, even sari-sari store operators should be monitored for keeping business permits through which a system may be implemented in controlling the consumption of meat that may be affected by the disease.
Earlier this week, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura chairman Rosendo So said they are pushing for the lifting of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) on pork imports and cancel all SPS currently being processed for pork imports.
“Protecting the local agriculture and supporting the interest of Filipino farmers at this time of an outbreak, through the non-issuance of SPS does not violate our commitment to the World Trade Organization,” he said.
So, who is also a member of the Department of Agriculture Crisis Management Team, noted that the ASF may have entered the country through the pork imports.
“The source of the ASF are these tainted pork imports. It is high time to protect the billion-peso hog industry,” he asserted. the World Bank has approved an additional $280 million in funding for the implementation of the Philippine rural Development Project.