Meat importation in question
As local stakeholders urge DA to suspend meat importation due to ASF
MANILA -- With the spread of the dreaded African swine fever (ASF), the latest in Hong Kong and Vietnam, the country's hog raisers and other stakeholders are poised to make a formal appeal to President Rodrigo Duterte for a two-month suspension of importation of pork and pork products.
"This will be an appeal to the President thru Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol that there would be a temporary suspension of importation to give us time, according to the (DA) Secretary, to strengthen borders in order to prevent entry of ASF (infected pork and pork products)," said Rufina Salas, chairperson of the Philippine Council for Agriculture and FisheriesCommittee on Poultry, Livestock and Feed Crops (PCAF-CPLFC), on the sidelines of the meeting of hog raisers and stakeholders conducted at the DA central office in Quezon City on Monday.
"This would just be temporary as admittedly our defense mechanism for entries -- there are channels which can be used for imported products to come in. Knowing the disastrous effect of ASF, we should strengthen our efforts," she said.
Piñol, for his part, admitted there are lapses in the "quarantine wall" with regards to strictly implementing the entry of pork and pork products in the country.
As such, he proposed suspension of pork and pork products importation coming from "high risk" countries aside from the 16 countries earlier banned of entry.
Piñol defines high risk countries as those which are contiguous to ASFaffected areas that may have the disease already but have not monitored or aware of it yet.
He noted the suspension was to ensure that the dreaded disease would not penetrate the country and possibly destroy the PHP200-billion hog industry by having a solid defensive quarantine wall.
"We want to ensure our trading partners this action actually is not aimed at severing our trade relations with them but protecting our hog industry. As soon as we are able to establish an 'impenetrable' quarantine wall then everything will be okay," he said.
Piñol cited Vietnam which has killed 1.4 million hogs already due to ASF and China that has wiped out 30 percent of its hog population to date.
As such, the DA chief said he will also be meeting with local importers on May 28 and appeal to them to support the government's effort to prevent the entry of ASF by buying local products until such time that the defense mechanism in all entry points of the country have been strengthened.
"We have buffer stock of meat for at least five months that are in the cold storage facilities," he said.
The DA chief is also looking at installing xrays dedicated mainly for quarantine purposes.
"If other countries can do it, so can we. This does not only cover meat but also plants," he said.