Manila, Philippines, May 11 ----- A hog raisers’ group has issued a warning on the death of the local hog industry due to the continuing spread of African swine fever, with 90 percent of the provinces now affected by ASF.
Philippine Pork Producers Federation president Nonon Tambago said the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) should admit failure in their campaign against ASF. “What they are doing right now is not effective. It’s evident by the continuous spread of ASF. We will presume that in the coming months or weeks, the entire country will be affected by the virus,” Tambago said.
A BAI bulletin showed that ASF outbreaks were recorded in 460 towns as of May 4. Among the 17 regions, only Metro Manila remains free of the swine disease. Tambago said losses incurred by the livestock industry have reached P100 billion, with five million pigs culled since 2019. “This is a big problem because it affects our production, the whole industry, and eventually it will impact on the consumers, which we are experiencing now,” he said.
Tambago said data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the total swine population in the country is nine to 10 million.” But for us, it could be less, at eight million,” he said. Monitoring by the DA showed that as of Monday, the retail price of pork shoulder or kasim ranged between P300 and P360 per kilo and pork belly or liempo, between P340 and P420 per kilo.
“It is higher at the supermarkets. These are the implications amid the impact of ASF in the industry,” Tambago said. He slammed the flooding of the market with imported frozen pork products, with importations reaching 710 million kilos last year. Tambago stressed the need to establish first-border control facilities in the country and review the protocols to prevent the further spread of ASF and protect the hog industry.
Source: philstar.com
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