Pork imports from US not banned, traders say

By Riza T. Olchondra
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 09:01:00 05/09/2009

Filed Under: Swine Flu, Foreign Aid
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines has not banned pork and pork products from the US after all, according to industry leaders both in the US and in the Philippines.

This, despite the Department of Agriculture’s announcement in late April that it would restrict the entry of pork and pork products from countries with an outbreak of A(H1N1) virus as “a precautionary measure.”

“The Philippines has decided not to impose restrictions on US pork imports contrary to previous announcements,” US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) communications director Joe Schuele said in a report.

“The Philippines has decided to only ban pork imports from Canada due to the detection of the H1N1 virus in a swine herd in Alberta,” he said.

Canada reported the world’s first case of a human transmitting the new influenza virus to swine.

Schuele called it “a bit of good news” as US meat exporters were still reeling from bans imposed by major markets Russia and China.

The US is also worried about economic disruptions resulting from the A(H1N1) outbreak in Mexico, also a major market for these US products, even though the country remains “fully open” to US pork and beef.

The Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI) confirmed that its members may still import pork from the US “if there is a need.”

“There was some restraint in the sense that the applications for importation submitted by members took more time for processing recently but now they are progressing,” PAMPI executive director Francisco Buencamino said in an interview. “As far as I know the import restriction applies more to Alberta, Canada.”

Buencamino, however, could not say how much US pork was to be imported for canned goods and other processed meat products but said it was “minimal.”

“We also source locally so we don’t need to import so much from the US,” he said.

Buencamino also declined to comment on why the supposed import ban did not push through.