Monday, July 02, 2007 Mindanao still working on meat export requirements
MEAT packing plant operators in Mindanao are still working on the requirements set by the Agri-food Veterinary Authority (AVA) of Singapore for exporting pork to that country.
National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) 11 plant operation and inspection head Myrna Habacon in an interview said there are 21 recommendations that must be complied with by processing plants.
She did not give details on the requirements but said these tackle corrections on structural deficiency and may take some time to complete.
But she was quick to add there are items in the recommendations that the plants had complied with.
At the Kapihan sa PIA on Friday, Rafael Mercado, Department of Agriculture (DA) Southern Mindanao chief for livestock division, said they are monitoring closely the compliance of the recommended measures set by AVA even as he said hopefully the plan to export pork meat to Singapore would proceed by next month.
Mercado said the AVA of Singapore, which is the Philippine counterpart for NMIS, had sent officers to assess conditions of meat processing plants in the country and recommend for accreditation the chicken dressing in Luzon, Mt. Matutum meat packing plant in Sarangani, and Nenita Quality Foods (NQF) of Davao City.
He said the NQF and Mt. Matutum are both in the process of making corrective measures. "In the event that NQF will not still be ready by the next two months the pork meat for export will be processed at Mt. Matutum packing plant," he said.
Mercado said NQF has a capacity to process 50 heads per hour while Mt. Matutum when fully operational can accommodate 250 heads an hour.
Habacon meanwhile said that as far as protocol requirements of antibiotic and other chemical residue levels are concerned, the region's produce could now be classified as safe.
She also said the region already had established records of this protocol five years backward as part of the requirement of AVA.
She however said compliance of requirements must be met at certain levels before the NMIS will recommend to AVA for another round of assessment of the pork meat processing plants in Mindanao so that proper accreditation will be issued.
