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Dept. of Agriculture officials meeting with hog industry leaders; deny ban on meat imports
| By pinoyfarmer | September 29, 2008 |  |
The Department of Agriculture officials have been meeting with hog industry leaders to discuss their concerns over certain issues saddling the livestock subsector, these DA officials said yesterday even as they denied reports of a government ban on meat imports to the Philippines.
Assistant Secretary Salvador Salacup said that, “Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) officials led by Director Dave Catbagan have already been instructed by Secretary Arthur Yap to directly establish linkages between hog producers and meat processors, to discuss, among other concerns about the domestic supply and pricing of pork items.”
He said plans are being firmed up to link backyard hog growers with meat traders like Philippine Association of Meat Processors, Inc. (PAMPI) and Meat Importers and Traders Association, Inc. (MITA).
DA officials have also been meeting with these groups to discuss the possibility for retailers to adopt a standard retail price, Salacup added.
As for reports of a ban on meat imports, Catbagan made it clear, meanwhile, that there was no such directive issued by the Secretary, adding that Yap had merely asked the DA’s regulatory agencies to review the issuance of import permits for agricultural products as part of the Department’s intensified efforts to curb smuggling.
“There is no ban,” Catbagan said. “The instruction of the Secretary is in view of the alleged rampant smuggling in the hog sector. The secretary instructed the DA regulatory agencies such as the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Bureau of Plant Industry and BAI to review the issuance of import permits to determine if there are lapses.”
He added that, “There was no instruction to suspend the issuance of import permits or authority for any particular agricultural product.”
The DA is stepping up the implementation of several measures for the hog industry, including feed subsidies, a stock dispersal program, and disease control programs that are being implemented in coordination or collaboration with the local government units.
These programs are meant, he said, to help the sector recover from a growth slump in the first semester, in step with President Arroyo’s goal to energize the farm sector and ensure food sufficiency.
As President Arroyo has sustained her government’s record investments in DA programs to boost productivity, the agriculture sector expanded by a high 4.7% in the first semester of 2008 as against 3.74% in the same period last year.
The crops subsector was the chief growth driver, with palay yields growing by 5.84% to 7.12 million metric tons and corn output by 19.62% to 3.292 million MT. Sugarcane led the high-value commercial crops with double-digit growth rates at 32.19%, followed by bananas, 20.85%; and pineapples, 11.94%.
However, the livestock subsector contracted 3.33% in the first semester of 2008, with hog production suffering a decline of 4.33% during the period owing to a drop in the number of animals slaughtered in abattoirs, which, in turn, was a result of a swine disease outbreak that had negatively affected production in Central Luzon.
As part of its measures to assist the hog growers, Yap earlier has ordered BAI and the National Meat Inspection Service to finalize plans to complement the meat inspection laboratories set up in General Santos City and Polomolok in South Cotabato.
The DA will also include in its rehabilitation package for the livestock sector animal health programs and laboratory services, Catbagan said.
Catbagan said the DA is now undertaking a massive vaccination program, worth P30 million, against possible Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PPRS) and other emerging swine diseases, with a focus on the backyard population in Central Luzon and the Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) area.
Source: Philippine Department of Agriculture
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