Manny Piñol warns PH hog industry is dying under import pressure

The Philippine hog industry is collapsing under the weight of imported pork from Brazil flooding the local market, with live hog prices crashing from over ₱200 per kilo to ₱110-130, and former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol is warning that when hog raisers quit, the corn farmers who supply their feeds will follow.

Piñol made the warning in an interview on DZRH News program The Situation Report on Wednesday, September 9, saying the hog industry is now falling into the same trap as the rice sector did under the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).

The former Agriculture chief said piglet prices have also collapsed—from ₱5,000 per head to ₱3,000—making it economically irrational for anyone to raise hogs when the cost of inputs already exceeds what the market will pay.

“Bakit nagmura ang baboy? Kasi binabaha ng imported na baboy yung merkado natin galing sa Brazil. Papano ka nga naman mag-aalaga ng baboy eh yung rati ang biik binibili ng 5,000, ngayon nasa 3,000 na lang yung biik. So sinong mag-aalaga ng baboy kapag ganyan?” Piñol said.

Piñol said the cascading effect is what policymakers are failing to see — when hog raisers stop raising pigs, they also stop buying corn-based feeds, darak, and other locally produced inputs, meaning the crisis in the pork sector directly translates into a crisis for corn farmers.

He drew a direct parallel to the rice sector: cheap imports arrive, local producers are destroyed, then the country is permanently dependent on foreign supply with no domestic fallback.

The former Agriculture chief said the government must recognize the difference between allowing temporary imports to fill a genuine shortfall and adopting importation as a permanent market policy—the latter, he said, is not a food security strategy but a decision to kill local farming.