The Department of Agriculture announced Friday a milestone in the country’s fight against the Asian Swine Fever, with around 700,000 new hogs produced in a year from January 2020 under the repopulation program.
Citing report from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Bureau of Animal Industry said total hogs increased to 9.8 million in 2022 from 9.1 million in 2021.
BAI director Reildrin Morales said the increase was due to the initiatives and efforts of the private sector, swine raisers’ groups and professional veterinary associations, together with the government, to eradicate the threat of ASF.
“These efforts, implemented in partnership with LGUs have been instrumental in keeping the industry alive,” he said.
Morales said with the increase in hog population, pork supply slowly stabilized, as production from local raisers was complemented by imported frozen pork. “These imported products are kept in cold storages and will be released to simply augment supply gap. This was never meant to compete with the local producers,” he said.
