Ham, hotdog prices seen to increase

MANILA, Philippines — Consumers should prepare to pay more as prices of items in their Christmas baskets, particularly hams and hotdogs, will likely increase as the Philippines continues to secure its borders against the dreaded African swine fever (ASF).

The Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI) warned consumers may have to spend more for processed meat products following the government order to ban meat imports from Germany, a major meat exporter to the Philippines, and the still unresolved tariff issue with the Bureau of Customs.

“Definitely, that’s (an increase) for sure. We are unable to quantify yet how much. We are now being hit by the duties by Customs and this German issue might affect things,” PAMPI spokesman Rex Agarrado told The STAR.

“When China got hit by ASF, pork prices doubled already while those pork shoulders and hams went up by almost 40 percent. That’s without the German issue, what more now?” he added.

The Department of Agriculture recently issued a temporary suspension of system accreditation for all German foreign meat establishments to export meat into the Philippines.

Processors claimed that the move may trigger price increase for hotdogs, bacon, ham, tocino and other pork-based processed meat products.

Import data showed that for the first quarter of the year, Germany contributed 28 percent or 24,684 metric tons of the total pork imports for the period which was at 87,523 MT.

“We are going to the ‘ber’ months so the meat processors start to buy for their hams. With Germany temporarily banned, meat processors and meat traders will scramble from other countries for their pork material source so definitely prices will go up in the next months,” PAMPI president Felix Tiukinhoy said in a separate statement.

“Plus our local hog raisers started to increase their pork prices already. There is a tendency for us to also increase our price if our cost is not tolerable to maintain our prices. Pork prices have already gone up more than 20 percent versus a year ago because of ASF which affected supply even from non-infected countries. The ban on German pork will aggravate it,” he added.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol expressed dismay over the warning of the processors.

“They show more concern for the prices of hotdog and bacon than the possible devastation by the ASF of the P260-billion hog industry which provides livelihood to thousands of poor Filipino farmers,” Piñol said in a message to The STAR.

“The entry of the dreaded ASF into the country could lead to the collapse of our livestock industry and cause unquantifiable damage to our economy,” he added.

German exporter ProFood allegedly co-mingled German pork with pork from Poland, which is affected by ASF, and shipped it to the Philippines. The DA is now conducting investigation on the matter.

“If and when the investigation will show that the violation was confined to that particular export company, then we will take the proper measure to lift the ban on all German pork shipment,” Piñol said.