The government has issued the guidelines governing the additional minimum access volume (MAV) for pork meat, a move seen to briefly benefit consumers but may affect the country's pork industry in the long run. Briones also said increasing pork imports will decrease the farmgate price of hogs, as well as discourage local hog raisers from repopulating and adding more pigs. Rolando Tambago, president of Central Visayas Pork Producers, said the "front loading" of the initial 140,000 MT of imported pork will further give sufferings to the local pork industry still grappling with the "devastating effects" of ASF. He also said the imported pork should only be sold to Luzon since it is the only region highly affected by the ASF, resulting in supply shortage and higher prices early this year. Imported pork should not be distributed to the Visayas and Mindanao," he added partly in Filipino.

Source: Manila Times June 28, 2021 17:03 UTC