Photo from the web/CTTO
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – “The hog industry has lost P15-billion for the past six months alone this year.”
And there is no end in sight to the continuing downward spiral, said Toto Gonzales, general manager of the Pampanga Swine Producers Association, even as his group pleaded with the national government to find a vaccine for the African swine fever that has virtually decimated the swine population in the province.
Wency Tantungco, PSPA president, called on the Department of Agriculture to stop the ASF for the hog raisers to begin repopulating their farms.
Hog-raising in Pampanga is a P65-billion industry, Gonzales said, “You can only imagine the tremendous impact of ASF to the industry.”
He cited the case of one piggery farm that had to cull 12,000 heads of hogs to prevent the spread of the disease.
“Our inventory for the whole province is only five percent, and it’s not enough to cover the demand for pork in the province alone. This translates to an increase of prices of pork meat per kilo due to limited supply in the market,” said Gonzales.
He said that meat dealers have to rely on supplies from the Visayas and Mindanao and the imported meats from China, citing their affordability and much lower prices than local sources.
“The problem though is hog raisers in Visayas and Mindanao fear they risk the danger of their livestock also getting infected [with ASF] and might later hold further shipment of live hogs to Luzon,” Gonzales noted.
This, even as he assured the public that the PSPA is “doing its share to help stabilize pork prices and hog stocks until a vaccine [for ASF] is finally available.”
Prevailing prices of pork in Pampanga as of press time have soared to as high as P350 per kilo, compared to the P220 per kilo before ASF struck.
Rehabilitation
The DA and the provincial government of Pampanga recently distributed livestock other than hogs worth some P32-million to 6,718 hog raisers as initial aid under a recovery and rehabilitation program to those adversely affected by the ASF.
Gov. Dennis “Delta” Pineda said the additional assistance is intended to help hog raisers recover from their losses, especially during this time of the coronavirus disease pandemic.
“This project is a livelihood program given by Agriculture Secretary William Dar and President Duterte, in addition to the payment given to us for culled pigs last year. I hope through this, we can start again. We assure our hog raisers that we will not abandon you especially during this time of pandemic,” the governor explained.
