THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is eyeing to start the distribution of the P45 million worth of chest freezers and chillers to Metro Manila wet markets this month as it finalizes procurement rules, a high-ranking official said.
Agriculture Undersecretary William C. Medrano told the BusinessMirror that the P45-million budget for the program has been released to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), which is already finalizing the procurement rules.
Medrano said BAI is now “preparing documentary requirements” for the procurement of the freezers and chillers. Medrano added that the DA-BAI targets to conduct bidding procedures as soon as “specifications” on the freezers and chillers have been “firmed up” in consultation with end-users.
Based on their consultations, Medrano explained that market vendors want chillers that could be placed on tables, which their earlier identified chiller model could not do.
“Within the month, once BAI’s procurement is successful,” he said via SMS when asked when is the target month for the distribution of the chillers.
The price per unit of the soon to be procured freezers and chillers may vary from the earlier pronounced P18,000 per unit cost by the DA, depending on the model, Medrano noted.
In April, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar announced that the DA is allocating P45 million to purchase 2,500 freezers and chillers with a capacity of 150 kilograms each that would be granted to meat retailers through Metro Manila local government units (LGUs) and market vendors’ associations.
The program seeks to allow wet markets in Metro Manila to sell imported frozen pork, expanding the availability of cheaper pork products in the domestic market. Imported frozen pork may only be sold in wet markets that have proper refrigeration systems or equipment to handle imported meat products, based on existing food safety rules.
The grant of freezers and chillers to wet markets serves as a complementary program to the anticipated surge in imported pork in the country after the government slashed pork tariffs and hike minimum access volume (MAV).
The Philippines imported a record nearly 135,000 metric tons (MT) of pork bellies and cuts in the first half—more than quadruple from a year earlier—as the country rushed to boost domestic supply and temper rising prices, government data showed.
The 367-percent increase in the imports of pork bellies and cuts drove overall pork imports to expand by 176 percent to 277,850.59 MT from 100,745.261 MT in the first half of 2020, BAI data showed.
BAI data also showed pork imports from January to June already being 8.5 percent higher than the total pork imported by the country in 2020 of 256,017.458 MT.
Industry sources told the BusinessMirror that total pork imports this year may breach the record volume in 2018 of 392,154.307 MT given the current growth rate of imports across all cuts.