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Friday, March 29, 2024

Poultry growers contest meat processors’ petition

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Local poultry and livestock producers opposed the petition of meat processors who seek to retain the 5-percent to 20-percent tariff on mechanically-deboned meat.

The United Broiler Raisers Association of the Philippines, during a hearing Wednesday at the Tariff Commission, debunked claims that prices of processed and canned meat products would increase by as much as P17 per can as alleged by the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. if the government failed to retain the 5-percent tariff on MDM.

“Apart from nondisclosure of their cost of production and the huge profit they get while using MDM instead of real meat, there is also the issue of labeling on top of safety issues and smuggling,” Ubra vice president Elias Jose Inciong said, in rebuttal to the presentation of Pampi.

Inciong said there were cases when the declared shipment was MDM, “when in fact, the shipment is laden with chicken leg quarters”.

MDM is an imported meat by-product used as fillers and extenders for certain processed food such as corned beef, sausages, hotdogs, and luncheon meat.

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The country imported as much as 248 million kilos of MDM in 2017.

Meat processors sent the Tariff Commission a petition dated Aug. 13, 2018, seeking for the retention of current MDM tariff rates.

The tariff on MDM imports was tied to the previous negotiation for the quantitative restriction on rice where the WTO agreed to retain rice QR in exchange for less tariff on MDM.

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