DA mulls income tax holiday for hog raisers

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is looking at providing income tax holidays for hog raisers to encourage more repopulation efforts.

In a statement, the DA said Agriculture Secretary William Dar is banking on the intensification of hog repopulation efforts of the government to address local hog supply deficits due to African Swine Fever (ASF).

“Hog repopulation is really key this year, as we pounce on the declining cases of ASF and time it with research and technological solutions,” Dar said.

Latest data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showed that there are only 46 barangays in the country with active ASF cases as of Jan. 20,

The DA cited ASF as among the factors that negatively impacted the agriculture sector last year, as the value of agricultural production dropped 1.7 percent, based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Hog production fell to 1.7 million metric tons last year, 21 percent lower than the 2.1 million MT produced in 2020.

As the drop in hog production affected supply, pork prices continued to rise.

PSA data showed that meat inflation soared to 16.8 percent last year from just 4.4 percent in 2020.

Prices of frozen pork kasim or pork ham ranged from P200 to P260 a kilo while frozen liempo prices generally averaged at P280 a kilo.

Retail prices of fresh pork, however, averaged at P340 a kilo for kasim and P380 a kilo for liempo in the first two weeks of January.

“We have to make affordable basic food items for the large Filipino consuming public who get more than 50 percent of their protein source from pork and 30 percent from fish,” Dar said, citing the current inflation outlook as the current driver of importation.

Dar said that the country would have to cope with rising consumer prices with the rest of the world this year, stressing that local balanced measures to ensure affordability for food consumers are all the more urgent.

“The agriculture sector this year will confront global challenges, such as other countries stockpiling fertilizers and fuel prices going up,” Dar said.

Global food prices marked record highs during the pandemic, with the United Nations Index posting a 28 percent increase from grains to meat in the last two years.

“Labor shortages in transport and high freight costs have further grounded goods, especially during recent surges in COVID-19 infections in most countries. The rise of vaccine mandates among the largest global economic players is also seen to compound mobility issues among workers,” the DA said.

As part of the government’s efforts to address rising food prices, Dar issued a directive to the DA-Regional Field Offices (DA-RFOs) to keep up food mobilization from food surplus provinces to major metropolitan markets.

“We are enhancing production in areas and provinces around Metro Manila, such as Central Luzon, and creating a quadrant of food baskets around NCR,” he said.

RFOs have been tasked to empower farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) to directly export their surplus fruits and vegetables to metro areas.

Dar also directed DA units to prioritize FCA capacitation through capitalization and provision of agri-machinery and equipment.