THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said hog raisers in Mindanao will bring their surplus pork products to Visayas and Luzon to help stabilize the supply and prices of pork in Metro Manila and other key areas.
“We are looking at an initial volume of 1,700 metric tons (MT) of pork from Davao and General Santos City that are available for immediate transport to Visayas and Luzon, “said Agriculture Secretary William Dar.
Dar in a statement said Davao hog raisers have committed to ship their surplus pork at 500 MT monthly, while those in General Santos and Cagayan de Oro could ship 3,000 MT monthly.
“However, we are confronted with a few challenges in transporting frozen pork, including other food and fishery products, from Mindanao to Visayas and Luzon, but we are addressing them swiftly in direct consultation with concerned local government units,” Dar said.
He also assured the public pork from Mindanao is free from the African Swine Fever and is of good quality.
“Right now our pork sufficiency is 93 percent, as we forecast a deficit by the end of the year, at 31 days. In lieu of pork, we enjoin consumers to shift to other protein sources like chicken, as we have an abundant supply of up to 233 days or till August 2021… To help our poultry raisers, we encourage local government units in Luzon to consider buying chicken and eggs from them and include these in food subsidy packs for distribution to their constituents,” Dar said
Earlier, this month, a report from the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) indicated the Philippines can experience a 10 percent drop in pork production this year against an expected normalization in demand.
Based on latest data from the National Meat Inspection Service, as of the week of April 20, total inventory of pork in accredited cold storages is at 51,126.71 MT, of which 7,776.52 MT are domestically produced while the remaining 43,350.19 MT were imported.
Last year, the Philippines managed to produce a total of 2.296 million MT of pork, almost down by 1 percent from 2018’s 2.319 million MT.
The agency will distribute seeds and fertilizers for free to rice farmers starting the wet cropping season this year to further boost the country’s rice production.
The agency will distribute inbred and hybrid rice seeds with fertilizers to both rainfed and irrigated areas.