Industry stakeholders fear that government’s plan to import pork and chicken would drive farm gate prices down, noting that in the past few weeks, there has been slow demand for meat.

Speaking at the sidelines of the forum of the US Agricultural Trade and Investment Mission led by US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack last week, industry players said demand from meat processing companies have also been down when traditionally, consumers should be buying pork and the demand for hams is highest.

“This is not the case anymore since people are not buying and farmgate prices are not moving much,” a breeder said.

An official of the Department of Agriculture said two large companies are taking the bulk of the permitted importation of chicken and chicken by-products and it is not known whether they could bring in the five million kilos in time for the Christmas season.

He explained that meat imports take 45 days to arrive in the country and he knows of no company moving as yet to bring in their share of the allowed imports.

The prices of some cuts have remained at about P89 per kilo and another DA official mused if meat processors are no longer manufacturing hotdogs and corned beef since no carabeef imports have arrived.

Malacanang is poised to lift the special safeguard duty on chicken imports to allow meat processors to stock up in preparation for the holiday season but since there is little demand, industry players fear that in the event the imports arrive, poultry raisers already reeling under the impact of Ondoy and Pepeng would feel the brunt.

A trader said up to 2.5 million broilers were lost in Bulacan due to Ondoy and what the market needs are more broilers to meet the demand in the first and second quarters.

Hog suppliers have been sourcing their products from the Visayas and Mindanao but this may have to stop once frozen meat products are dumped in the market.

Under Executive Order 834, President Arroyo authorized the National Food Authority (NFA), Food Terminal, Inc. (FTI) and even the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) to intervene in “stabilizing” prices of basic commodities.

This has been taken to mean by the industry as an effort to allow unbridled importation of food items since the twin calamities have led to price controls on basic commodities.