Manila, Dec. 10 -- An official of the British Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (BCCP) on Wednesday cited the need to base any adjustment in the minimum access volume (MAV) for pork imports on the country's latest population level to ensure food security and inflation stability.

This was after Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. earlier said they were studying the possible revision of the MAV rules since the figures are already outdated, as they were put in place in 1996 when the population was about 70,000 million.

For now, the DA has changed import allocations, increasing the share of pork processors to 50 percent, to prevent significant upticks on the price of processed meats when supply declines. ...