MANILA – Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile yesterday challenged the Bureau of Customs to produce concrete results in its drive against illegal and excessive importation of meat products into the country, over estimates that up to 50 percent of the country’s backyard hog producers will be forced to close shop if rampant pork smuggling continues.

Enrile said this situation not only brings adverse effects on the livelihood of families depending on pork sales but also poses a serious threat on the country’s food security, noting that backyard farmers produce most of the country’s pork supply.

"If the problem is so pervasive that it threatens half of our country’s backyard swine raisers, this is already a cause for alarm given its impact on our food security and the government must swiftly investigate and address this situation," he said.

The rampant technical smuggling of imported meat is a concern that has been raised by local hog farmers for a while now but we have not heard of arrests or seizures made by the government. I believe this is a challenge for BoC to really show results in its efforts to stop the technical smuggling of meat products, Enrile added.

The Agriculture Sector Alliance of the Philippines claimed that around 50 percent of backyard hog producers in the country are likely to close shop due to stiff competition from cheap imported meat that have been flooding local markets.

It noted that some 20 percent of backyard hog raisers have already been displaced to date by the influx of cheap imported meat.

The group estimated losses sustained by local hog producers of up to P8.5 billion from July 2011 to February 2012 when farm gate prices decreased from P110 per kilo to P90 per kilo of pork to compete with cheap imported meat.

Enrile urged BoC Commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon not to pass on the blame to the high cost of production but should instead focus on solutions that can already be instituted at the moment, such as the curbing of misdeclaration and undervaluation of imported meat.

We have very little control on feed prices because pricing is normally a function of market forces. But we do have control over the entry of misdeclared and undervalued imported meat so this is where we should really train our focus on, he said.*PNA

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