Livestock raisers to stop pork supply to Metro for three days

PANDI, Bulacan — Backyard livestock raisers, led by the Agricultural Sector Alliance of the Philippines (ASAP) in Luzon, are poised to freeze pork supply to Metro Manila for three days this month to press the government to stop smuggling and the importation of excess meat products that they claim are killing the local livestock industry.

ASAP chairman Nicanor Briones, a member of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Task Force, told The STAR that the Alyansang Agrikultura ng Pilipinas (AAP) earlier had expressed plans to join the protest move by also cutting off the delivery of vegetable and other agricultural products to Metro Manila.

But he said AAP reconsidered its plans so as not to unduly burden consumers.

"We are definitely going to push through with what we call ‘delivery holiday’ this month by not delivering swine to Metro Manila’s slaughterhouses," Briones said in a telephone interview from Lipa City yesterday.

He said the exact dates for the three-day "delivery holiday" would be announced on the first day itself, although he added that Metro Manilans would feel the effects on the second day when slaughterhouses would not have pigs to slaughter.

Lito Hizon, president of the Livestock Raisers Association of Pandi (LRAP) here, said hog-raisers in Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac and other northern provinces are expected to join the delivery boycott.

"We have suffered enough because of the smuggling of frozen meat, especially starting early last year," Hizon said, adding that smuggling has also affected poultry and cattle raisers.

"In Bulacan alone, about 50 percent of broiler raisers have been wiped out by the unfair competition posed by the smuggled products," he said.

"We do not want consumers in Metro Manila to suffer, but we see our move as an effective way to call the attention of the government to widespread smuggling of meat products which affects us because they are cheaper," he said.

Hizon said most of the smuggled meat products come from India, China and Korea and land at the Port of Manila, which purportedly serves only as a transshipment point.

"Somehow, the refrigerated container vans vanish there and (the meat products) find their way to our markets," he said.

Briones, however, said the slated three-day boycott would cover only pork.

"If the government does not listen, we will ask the AAP to join us and include other agricultural products in the boycott of deliveries to Metro Manila in the coming months," he said.

Hizon said the "delivery holiday" is expected to cut by half the daily pork supply to Metro Manila.

Briones said hog-raisers in Batangas, Rizal, Cavite, Quezon and Laguna are expected to join the boycott.

"We also have commitments from hog-raisers in General Santos City and Iloilo which are also regular sources of Metro Manila’s meat," he added.

Briones estimated that some 740,000 families nationwide depend on backyard livestock and poultry raising, while 600,000 others depend on allied livelihood sources, such as production of livestock and poultry feeds.