Gov’t, farmers set P210/kg floor price for live pigs

Metro Manila, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) and hog farmers agreed to set the floor price for live pigs at P210 per kilogram on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

During their meeting, group leaders from Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc., and the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines said farmgate prices had dropped to P150 to P180/kg.

Asked on the details of the agreement, Agriculture spokesperson Arnel de Mesa said in a phone interview: “Ang cost to produce kasi nasa P180 na, P170 to P180, so para maka-recover sila.”

[Translation: The cost to produce is around P170 to P180 so the floor price would help them recover.]

The effectivity date of the floor price has yet to be finalized.

De Mesa said the market is awash with imported pork.

He said the DA also plans to reimpose the maximum suggested retail price for pork.

The policy was lifted in May as stakeholders cited low supply after the African Swine Fever surge last year. 

Other pleas

The DA and industry groups will recommend restoring the pork import tariff to 40 percent, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. reduced the rate to the current 25 percent.

The tariff cut was implemented through Executive Order 62 in June last year, which also cut rice tariff.

“Lower import duties have encouraged over-importation,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a news release. “This has flooded the market, squeezed local producers, and endangered both our food security and farmers’ livelihoods.”

The DA said it will issue an administrative order to reclassify pork jowls, currently treated as pork innards, in a bid to slap the pork product at a higher tariff.

Jowl is meat from pig cheek - popularized in the Korean barbecue “samgyupsal” - and demand has been on the rise from meat processors.