Unstable pork supply hits Negros Occidental

BACOLOD CITY: Negros Occidental is experiencing unstable supply of pork and pork products, the president of a hog raisers group in the province said on Thursday, February 29.

Rick Lauron, president of the Alliance of Hog Raisers Association of Negros Occidental (Ahrano), said that about 50 percent of meat shops in the province are affected by the lack of hog supply caused by the spread of African swine fever (ASF).

He added that hog raisers in Negros Occidental are not supplying live hogs and pork products to other areas owing to limited supply.

Asked when the local hog industry could recover, Lauron said “it may take about two months.”

On Monday, February 26, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson signed Executive Order (EO) 24-07 establishing guidelines for “the entry of live pigs, boar semen, pork products, and other pork-related food items from areas with reported cases of ASF into the province.”

The EO bans the entry of hogs and pork products from Luzon, Mindanao, Eastern Visayas, Panay Island, Guimaras Island, Cebu province including Camotes and Bantayan Islands, Negros Oriental, Bacolod, and countries affected by ASF as may be detected by the Department of Agriculture.

The ban exempts fully cooked processed pork products, such as ham, sausages, hotdogs, canned goods, pork chicharon, and pork-based seasonings, provided they are sourced from meat establishments with a certificate of compliance from the ASF Public-Private Audit.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that hog production in Negros Occidental decreased by 4.79 percent in 2023 due ASF and hog cholera.

Last year, the province produced only 58,182.10 metric tons (MT) of hogs compared to 61,109.27 MT in 2022.

This brought a reduction of 2.62 percent in the total livestock production of Negros Occidental, including hog, carabao, cattle and goat, from 76,640.77 MT in 2022 to 74,633.05 MT in 2023, the PSA report showed.

Data also showed that swine inventory in January also declined by 16.21 percent to only 413,217 heads compared to 493,152 heads in January 2023.

In Bacolod City, Councilor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, said that the city government is buying 800 live hogs from Bohol province to address the high cost of pork in the city.

“By importing pigs from other provinces, we expect pork prices to go down by P5 to P10 per kilo,” Sayson said.

“Bohol is classified as a green zone as it is free from ASF,” he added.

Current prices of pork in Bacolod range from P410 to P430 in local markets.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Bago City, Mayor Nicholas Yulo said that effective Monday, March 4, checkpoints will be set up in its borders with Bacolod City to guard against the entry of pork and pork products as part of efforts to curb the spread of the ASF.

Mayor Yulo said the checkpoints are in compliance with the executive order of the governor.

Yulo said the checkpoints will be located in Barangay Taloc and Tabunan, while the city’s border with Bacolod and will be manned by city government personnel on a daily basis.

Yulo added that personnel are mandated to flag down vehicles that have live hogs and pork products in “plain view.”

The city government also continuously monitors the public markets in Bago, he said.

He said that Bago can accept pork and its by-products from areas that are free from ASF or those classified as “green areas.”

“Technically, the pigs that died in Bago City did not die from ASF. Maybe they died from hog cholera,” the mayor said.