A new suggested retail price (SRP) for imported pork meat may be announced next week, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said on Saturday.

The current suggested retail price for kasim is P270 and liempo is P350, which took effect on April 9.

Dar said this will changed due to the new tariff rate for the imported pork meat.

On Thursday, the Department of Agriculture and the economic team recommended that tariff rates be adjusted to 10 percent in-quota and 20 percent for out-quota for the first 3 months.

Then it will be 15 percent and 25 percent, respectively, for the remaining nine months.

"Well, based on the final tariff we are now making the calculations and we are doing this in tandem, in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry. So maybe next week we will announce the suggested retail price," he said in a public briefing on Saturday.

"There will be a new executive order highlighting or mentioning the lowered tariff. There is also another EO containing the minimum access volume increase. So that is what we are expecting," Dar said.

"Now, with these twin measures which is the MAV (minimum access volume) Plus, plus the lowering of the tariff of imported pork and pork products, we see in general that the pork prices will decrease, imported pork prices to a level of about 23 percent," he added.

Dar said "with the existing 54,000, the MAV will now total 254,000."

"For lowering the tariff, we agreed in quota, for the first three months is ten percent and the remaining nine months is 15 percent," he said.

"For the out quota, we agreed for the first three months, 20 percent; at the rest of the nine months is 25 percent. So everyone happy and the Filipino is happy," he added. Robina Asido/DMS