PH lost P4B from pork smuggling in 2013 - Sinag

The Philippine government lost close to P4 billion in revenues last year and almost a million Filipinos dependent on hog raising were displaced in the last four years due to outright and technical smuggling of pork products, the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) said.

Citing data from the Bureau of Animal Industry, Sinag chairperson Rosendo So said that 199 million kilos of pork were imported last year. However, a United Nations Commodity Trade Division (UN ComTrade) report of countries that exported pork meat to the Philippines showed pork importation at 237 million kilos – a difference of 38 million kilos that are presumed to have been smuggled into the country.