San Fernando—The hog industry in Pampanga is seeking the help of the national government, specifically the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Animal Industry, to find a vaccine for African Swine Fever that has wrought havoc in most piggery farms here since last year.
“The swine industry have lost P15 billion for the past six months alone this year. If this problem persists, hog raisers will surely end up losers with their businesses,” said Trinidad Gonzales, spokesman of the Pampanga Swine Producers Association, which counts most large piggery farms in the province.
Gonzales said the P65-billion hog industry in Pampanga has been repeatedly sending appeals to the national government to help their “dying” business brought about by ASF infestation.
She said the group can no longer meet the demands of local markets because of lack of supply.
One of the piggery farms in Pampanga, Gonzales said, had to cull 12,000 heads of hogs to prevent the spread of ASF. He did not mention the owner of the farm.
“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.
She added 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.
Prevailing prices for pork as of this press time in Pampanga have soared to as high as P350 per kilo, compared to the P220 per kilo before ASF struck, the Standard learned.
A total of 6,718 hog raisers in the province have benefitted from P32-million worth of livestock given by DA and the provincial government recently.
This initial aid is part of the recovery and rehabilitation program intended for those who were affected by the swine fever, which caused massive setbacks to the province’s hog industry in October last year.
Governor Dennis Pineda said the rehabilitation program is an additional assistance to ASF-affected farmers to give them a chance to recover from their losses, especially with the ongoing coronavirus disease pandemic.
“This project is a livelihood program given by Agriculture Secretary William Dar and President Rodrigo 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,” Pineda said.