More significant measures will be in place early next year to protect the country’s food supply against animal diseases, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Wednesday.
DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a briefing that his office intends to roll out vaccines against African swine fever vaccines (ASF) by March, as well as implement local trials of avian influenza (AI) vaccines.
Tiu Laurel said the government has bought 490,000 doses of ASF vaccines delivered to the country on a staggered manner basis.
Of these, 150,000 are being administered as part of a widespread trial. Results will form the basis for its commercial rollout.
“If FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the DA do not see any adverse reaction or problem, we will have a commercial rollout by March,” Tiu Laurel said.
However, the DA clarified ASF vaccines outside of the 490,000 doses ordered by the government will no longer be subsidized. He did not elaborate.
The Cabinet official also said the government intends to allot a P300-million budget to determine how effective the AI vaccines will actually be. This is expected to happen also in March.
The DA said it is now verifying if the doses can be purchased by the government.
In a related development, Tiu Laurel said the DA is in the process of accrediting countries in South America that can supply the Philippines with buffalo meat or carabeef, after the ban on the same meat products from parts of India due to the foot and mouth disease (FMD).
The DA also wants to source pork and chicken from South America for the purpose of expanding its supply base.
“It doesn’t mean we will import more, but we need to open up supply sources, so they will compete to supply for … us,” Tiu Laurel said.
The DA has accredited 34 Indian suppliers of frozen buffalo meat.
The DA said the current list of accredited Indian meat exporters includes six companies that were approved in 2019 and have recently sought to renew their accreditation.
The new accreditations will be valid for three years, until Dec. 12, 2027.
However, 13 of these companies will not be allowed to immediately export carabeef to the Philippines as their base of operations in the states of Maharashtra, Telangana and Bihar in India have active FMD outbreaks.
Imports of carabeef from these regions will be prohibited until India’s National Competent Authority declares them as FMD-free.
The DA does not intend to exempt heat-treated products as the accreditation specifies trade in frozen carabeef.
The Philippines imports approximately 40 percent of its carabeef supply.
Data from the Bureau of Animal Industry show that as of end-October, only India was able to supply the Philippines all 33,007,448 kgs of buffalo meat imports for the period.
Meanwhile, Tiu Laurel said the government is in talks with Pakistan and India to secure commitments for 2 million metric tons (MT) of rice to meet the Philippines’ import requirements. The commitment will be enforced only when the importing country needs to make an import.
Tiu Laurel said in a separate statement on Wednesday the Philippines and Pakistan are about to reach the final version of a memorandum of understanding. This would entail Pakistan to allocate up to 1 million MT of rice for the Philippines annually. This is about 25 percent of the country’s rice import needs.
The DA chief said similar negotiations are underway with India.
“The intention is to create a level playing field among our rice-supplying nations … We want them to compete for our market,” Tiu Laurel added.
This initiative is in line with the government’s goal to diversify its supply sources, according to the DA, with a view to lowering the cost of rice for consumers to have a more affordable staple food.
