Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel said he is looking at the total overhaul of the minimum access volume for pork, whose rules were formulated almost three decades ago that has been exploited by a small number of accredited importers.

“We are reformulating the rules for MAV. The DA’s Policy and Planning Office is already on the job and they have to have an output by October this year,” said the DA chief the at sidelines of the 31st National Hog Convention in Pasay City. “Our MAV rules were written in 1996 and when I read it, I found a lot of room for improvement. So, we have to revise the MAV,” he added.

Pork imported under the MAV quote enjoy a lower tariff of 15 percent compared to the regular rate of 25 percent. MAV allocation total 55,000 metric tons, with 30,000 MT set aside for meat processors to ensure lower priced processed meat.

In reviewing the MAV, Secretary Tiu Laurel said he found out that of the 130 quota holders, 47 account for 80 percent of the total allocation while 22 out of 47 have cornered 70 percent of that volume. “In realty, 22 MAV quota holders account for 55 percent of the total volume,” he said.

Worse, said the DA chief, many of those MAV quote are often reused, inflating total import volume. “The sad part about this is that consumers don’t benefit the reduced tariff,” he said.

As initially planned, Secretary Tiu Laurel is looking to increase allocation to meat processors to 40,000 MT and the balance to be set aside for the Food Terminals Inc. to allow it to have the resources to intervene in the market to stabilize pork prices.

The DA has implemented a maximum suggested retail price on pork—P380 per kilo of liempo and P350 a kilo of pigue and kasim—but compliance has so far been low. The MSRP for fresh carcass or sabit ulo was fixed at P300 per kilo. ###