A legislator on Friday urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to find ways to support the ailing local hog industry that is still reeling from the effects of the African Swine Fever epidemic.
Rizal Rep. Fidel Nograles raised the call in the wake of a non-government organization’s warning that a large number of pork producers have decided to stop repopulating their farms due to low pork prices.
The farmers’ group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) on Thursday said 30 percent of hog producers have stopped due to the effect of pork importation and the low demand for pork caused by strict quarantine restrictions.
“We cannot rely on pork imports forever, and we know that the effects of the quarantine are temporary. We need to find a way to support swine raisers,” said Nograles, an assistant majority leader.
The first-term legislator added: “Pork demand will again gain momentum as we are nearing the Christmas season. In just a few weeks, we will enter the ’Ber’ months, and pork is a staple in Noche Buena tables.”
“A way to support the hog industry is to help raisers prepare for the expected demand for ham and other pork products. This is consistent with our aim to bring the economy back to its feet,” he added.
Nograles said among the possible steps the government may do is to gradually raise tariff on pork, provide support services and subsidies to raisers, and start monitoring and regulation of farm-gate prices to balance producer and consumer interests.
“I understand that we needed to lower pork tariffs to allow cheap imported pork to enter our market to solve our supply problem. The DA, however, said that this is a temporary measure as we repopulate our local hog industry,” Nograles explained.
“Given that the DA have already announced that pork prices are starting to decline, it is time to bring back the tariffs to earlier levels and support our local industry so we can produce cheap local pork as well. Besides, we cannot strengthen our economy without strengthening agriculture,” he said.