Traders told: Protect PHL from African swine fever
The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Monday appealed to traders to avoid importing pork products from “high-risk” countries, or those near countries struck by African swine fever (ASF), such as Germany, to protect the local hog industry.
“I am asking importers to show their patriotism by ensuring that they do not import pork from high-risk countries,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol told reporters in a news briefing in Quezon City on Monday.
“We cannot actually stop [importers] but we can only appeal to them. We are calling on their sense of patriotism as [the hog] industry involves millions of poor Filipino farming families,” he added.
Piñol said the DA is also encouraging tourists, returning residents and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), to refrain from bringing in pork products as pasalubong, especially from ASFaffected countries.
“We are also calling on consumers
to reduce their appetite for imported meat to cut demand for imports. If consumers would not want imported pork, then that would minimize the demand,” he said.
Piñol pointed out that the entry of ASF in the Philippines may jeopardize the government’s plan of shipping local meat to new markets abroad, such as Singapore.
The government has intensified its biosecurity measures to prevent the entry of ASF virus in the country. These include the installation of foot baths in all international land ports and seaports, as well as the mandatory inspection of luggage and shipments for pork products from ASF-affected countries.
The agriculture chief disclosed that the DA, together with other concerned agencies, would inspect a cruise ship from China that is slated to arrive in the country on January 9. The cruise ship, Piñol said, is expected to dock at Subic port.
The DA is confiscating pork products from ASF-affected countries,
such as China, as they could serve as carriers of the virus.
“We are asking returning Filipino residents, balikbayan and OFWs to not bring in anymore pork products from high-risk areas,” Piñol said.
Piñol added that the DA is “virtually” deputizing Filipinos as quarantine officers who can
report fellow passengers and tourists bringing in pork products from affected countries to quarantine officers.
The DA has banned the importation of pork and pork products from 13 countries where the outbreak of ASF has been confirmed. These include Hungary, Belgium, Bulgaria and Russia.
Meat Importers and Traders Association President Jesus C. Cham told the BusinessMirror that he would ask Mita’s members to follow the recommendation of the DA. Cham said, however, that it is still up to Mita members if they would comply or not.
Cham noted that the World Organisation for Animal Health, or OIE, allows the "unhampered" trade of pork products from areas uninfected by diseases, such as ASF.
“From a scientific perspective, the OIE clearly allows unhampered trade for products from uninfected zones. This position has been arrived at after a thorough risk assessment of ASF,” he said.
In its quarterly report on the agriculture sector’s performance, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) indicated that the livestock subsector was the second biggest contributor to total farm output in the third quarter.
On an annual basis, data from the PSA showed that hog production alone rose by 2.55 percent and grossed P74.7 billion, or 8.81 percent more than the previous year’s level. From January to September, the livestock subsector recorded a 2-percent growth in output.
The PSA said production in the livestock subsector grew by 2.15 percent in the July-to-September period.