MANILA, 1 June 2008 — Prices of meat will increase in July or August when the the 60-day buffer stock bought at old prices is all sold, businessmen who run the country’s cold chain storages said.
They also foresee the increase of basic goods by 50 percent as problem of food sourcing is imminent.
The “clarion call trying not to be alarmist” was issued amid impending shortage of meat supply in the Philippines that largely import meat from India, Brazil, Egypt and the Middle East, among others.
Anthony Dizon, President of the Cold Chain Association of the Philippines (CCAP), a multi-sectoral organization of businessmen and professionals who are involved in the refrigeration of meat, said the meat industry has a “positive backlash” as warehouses are all full of imported meat for two months but hedge to anticipate increase of prices in world market.
He said on Friday that they are now confronted with high cost of imported meat as exporting countries such as India already started increasing its meat prices due to the increasing prices of oil.
The reason why it is not felt immediately is that meat products are now in storage but once that is depleted in two months will surely result in price hikes.
Brazil, the primary source of raw materials for corned beef, already jacked up its price from $2.30 per kilo last January to $2.50 per kilo today.
Dizon dicslosed that Filipinos consume as high as 90 percent of imported beef and 60 percent of imported chicken. Buffalo meat, mainly imported as corned beef cost $1.65 per kilo four years ago. It is projected to jump up to $2.75 per kilo in August this year.
While consumption of meat will surely increase given the increased population and present-day eating habits, its continued supply now is the question for importers, Dizon noted.
He also revealed that this phenomenon started five years ago when US started “throwing away” chicken to the Philippine food sector, thereby encouraging fast food chains to serve hot, crunchy, fried chicken at cheaper prices.
When the Filipino consumers have already been used to eating fried chicken, prices of poultry products jacked up — though minimal when compared to beef — because of a “strong poultry industry” in the country.
CCAP suggested to the government and the private sector to have a sufficient food supply by strengthening local production of meat instead of importing.
Dizon said that the food sector has to be jolted out of its “comfort zone” to get started somehow.
“One way is to increase our production of buffaloes with the help of the Philippine Carabao Authority and also resort to goat farming, he said.
