Meat processing firms expect strong rebound

The meat processing industry expects to rebound from a flat performance in the first quarter of the year to a full-year growth of up to 10 percent despite the global economic recession.

Jerome Ong, president of CDO Foodsphere Inc. and a director of the Philippine Association of Meat Processors of the Philippines Inc., said the industry was on track to recovery, with an 8-percent to 10-percent growth expected in the next three quarters.

Ong said domestic consumption in the first three months of the year suffered from the impact of the global economic slump.

“We see the first quarter of 2009 as a period of consolidation, where both manufacturers and consumers adopted a wait-and-see attitude, in the aftermath of the global financial meltdown,” he said.

“This is just a temporary setback in this difficult time when consumers became cautious in their spending. We expect consumers to go back to the market and buy the quality meat products for their nutritional needs,” Ong said.

He said the growth in demand for meat products was expected even during this challenging period, because processed meats had become essential components of Filipinos’ diet.

These products include refrigerated meat such as hotdogs and sausages and canned meat such as corned beef, karne norte and meat loaf.

Pampi, which serves as the private sector partner of the government in making available to the Filipino people high-quality and affordable food products, directly employs 35,000 Filipinos and provides indirect employment to 50,000 others.

It is a major component of the country’s P380-billion livestock and poultry industry, where more than 800,000 people depend on for their livelihood. Members of the association produce over 250 million kilos of meat products annually.–Manila Standard Today