CEBU CITY -- The Central Visayas Pork Producers Cooperative (CeViPPCo) stood firm on its commitment to Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia in her decision to adopt a different protocol in fighting and mitigating the impact of the African Swine Fever (ASF).
As stakeholders of the P11-billion Cebu hog industry, the group said they firmly believe in the protocol implemented by the Cebu Provincial Government.
“We call on the national leadership of the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Animal Industry (DA-BAI) to immediately review the protocol implemented in Cebu and consider it as an option for an effective way to fight and minimize devastation caused by this disease while there is no viable ASF vaccine in the market,” CeViPPCo said.
Garcia has ordered the suspension of culling in ASF-affected areas and Cebu and prevented BAI from implementing a color-coding scheme in the province.
“The protocol carefully weighs in both the aim to stop the spread of the disease as well as protecting the already limited inventory of hogs, especially so that Cebu is among the few remaining large hog producing provinces in the country now. Cebu now supports the supply gap of Manila, Eastern Visayas and part of Mindanao by shipping at least 12,000 heads per month of full grown hogs,” CeViPPVCo said.
CeViPPVCo said that contrary to reports from BAI, there have been no new cases reported in Cebu and farm gate prices of hogs has not gone down compared to what has happened in other provinces previously hit by ASF.
“This only shows that the protocol has worked, first, in stopping the spread of the disease as Cebu’s cases have not spread like wildfire, as projected and seen happening in other areas; and second; in preventing devastating economic loss from culling of even healthy pigs,” the group said.
Based on industry figures, half of the total P260 billion swine industry of the Philippines, or at least five million heads, have been lost due to the current protocol of culling where even the healthy hogs were included.
“Of the 5 million heads, only around 20% of that were actually infected, leaving us with a great loss of at least 4 million healthy hogs,” the group added.
“If BAI continues to implement what they have implemented for over three years now, which resulted in this great economic loss, we would not be surprised if within the coming months prices of pork shoot up to a level that will no longer be affordable to consumers.”
The group said that the BAI’s policy requiring culling of pigs within the 500-meter radius of the ASF-affected area is counter-productive.
“As mentioned before, the 500-meter radius culling protocol is counter productive and runs against food security, which can only be achieved through internal production,” said CeViPPCo, which is headed by its president, Jonathan Young.