TO ensure that there will be no shortage of pork this holiday season, the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) has moved the arrival date for 6,500 metric tons (MT) of pork imports to December 20, a senior official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

Agriculture Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla said the bids and awards committee of the FTI has requested to move the arrival date of pork imports beyond December 2.

“The schedule has been moved. We will issue [the notice] within the week, if possible,” said Fondevilla in a text message.

The private sector, however, said that the arrival date may already be “too late” to influence pork prices during the holiday season.

“Even if [the entire volume] arrives, it cannot affect market prices, which is the rationale behind the importation,” said Jesus Cham, president of the Meat Importers and Traders Association (Mita), in a text message.

FTI,   a    government-owned   and -controlled corporation under the DA, was allocated 4,000 MT. The government set aside P550 million for the importation of a combination of pork picnic (kasim), pork belly (liempo), pork ham (pigue) or “any other types of cut acceptable to the procuring entity.”

Industry sources said it scheduled two biddings for the pork imports. The two public biddings reportedly failed. The private sector was given an allocation of 2,500 MT.

Earlier, Mita admitted that private traders could not meet the deadline for bringing in pork imports, which was previously set on December 2.

Cham cited the difficulty of traders in finding suppliers from the United States, Canada and Europe to commit to deliver the pork products on the deadline set by the government.

Hog raisers from the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. however, assured that there are enough hogs available in General Santos City.

Traders, however, are reluctant to bring in hogs to Metro Manila because of the prohibitive fees imposed by shipping lines pegged at P15 per kilo.

The government decided to import as much as 20,000 MT of pork products following the onslaught of Tropical Storm Ondoy, which caused massive flooding in the National Capital Region and damage in the farm sector in the Southern Tagalog region, Central and Northern Luzon.

In October local hog raisers said the estimated shortage in pork products is at 30,000 MT due to the diseases which ravaged hog farms in Luzon, coupled with the losses from Tropical Storm Ondoy and previous typhoons.

Meanwhile, local traders have committed to bring in an additional 3 million kilograms of chicken products on top of the 5 million kilos they are looking to import before the holiday season, an official of the DA said.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary Salvador Salacup said the government will not apply the special safeguard mechanism (SSG) for the 8 million kilos of chicken products that will be imported into the country during the holiday season.

Under the SSG, chicken importers have to pay additional tariffs for imports coming in at less than the  trigger price of P94 per kilo.

Salacup made the announcement following a meeting with key industry players in the poultry sector.

The government was forced to allow the importation of chicken products due to the damage wrought by previous typhoons.