‘Pork supply enough to meet demand during the holidays’
The Department of Agriculture (DA) said the country has ample pork supply this holiday season even as the government continues to implement quarantine measures to contain and control the spread of African swine fever (ASF) in Luzon.
The DA said pork supply is “stable” and that it is “more than enough” to fill demand this holiday season. It added that pork prices have started to normalize, which indicates that consumers have regained confidence in consuming pork.
To help hog raisers, the DA again appealed to Filipino consumers to buy local pork. Hog raisers incurred losses after the government confirmed the outbreaks of ASF in some areas in Luzon, which caused farm-gate prices to decline.
The local hog industry is losing an average of P1 billion every month since the ASF was confirmed in the country, according to the DA.
“I assure the public that there will [be] ham and barbeque this Christmas. Let’s patronize local products because these are safe for consumption,” said Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar.
The retail prices of pork in Metro Manila wet markets as of November 6 rose by P4 to P5 per kilogram from the previous month’s average quotations, based on the daily price monitoring report of the DA.
The average retail price of pork ham, or kasim, is at P193.57 per kg, while pork belly, or liempo, costs about P225.50 per kg, the same report showed.
The spread of ASF in Luzon may have slowed as fewer samples tested positive for the dreaded hog disease in recent weeks, the country’s chief veterinarian said.
Bureau of Animal Industry OICDirector Ronnie D. Domingo said ASF-related reports received by his agency have been “dwindling” in the past month, indicating fewer outbreaks. Domingo said this development may be due to the strategies implemented by the DA and other concerned agencies to manage the crisis that struck Luzon farms starting July.
“There’s an indirect relationship between the samples and the ASF outbreaks. If there’s an outbreak in one area, then that area would submit samples. If there are more outbreaks, then more samples will be submitted,” he said.
Despite this, Domingo said the government will further intensify their control measures against ASF to prevent outbreaks.
“[The number of ASF outbreaks is] going down and from what I see, people are now aware and are now more careful. Also, our weather is getting dry, so these are favorable factors for disease control,” he said.
During the hearing of the House Committee on Agriculture and Food, Domingo said in his presentation that the number of ASFpositive samples declined to less than 20 on November 20, from a peak of over 180 positive samples on October 11.
“Our trend is unique to our country because in mainland Asia the trend is just upward. Since we are an archipelago, we have natural barriers for the spread of the virus unlike other Asian countries,” he said.
Based on Domingo’s presentation, seven provinces/cities nationwide are affected by ASF, including 50 municipalities and 461 barangays.
The Philippines has notified the World Organisation for Animal Health thrice regarding its ASF outbreaks. Manila said it has cumulatively culled 52,850 hogs to contain and control the spread of the virus.
He said the country’s hog culling rate is “way lower” compared to other countries struck by the fatal virus, such as China and Vietnam.
Domingo said the Philippines is culling 20,000 hogs monthly, while Vietnam is disposing of 616,000 pigs per month; South Korea, 145,000 hogs; and China, 97,000 hogs.