A three-year National Livestock Program (NLP) aimed at boosting hog inventory back to pre-African swine fever (ASF) numbers of around 12 million heads is awaiting the approval of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., concurrent secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA). Current inventory is at 9.8 million heads.
Dr. Ruth Miclat-Sonaco, DA-NLP director, said in an interview last week the three-year program also aims to restore the indemnification fund for pigs culled due to ASF as well as to improve animal disease surveillance programs.
Sonaco said the program also targets to establish a cold examination facility in agriculture.
Under the plan, the dairy sector will have an annual budget of up to P1.6 billion from the current P300 to P400 million to build up the country’s dairy herd.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a report dated April 10 said pork production will hit 975,000 metric tons (MT) this year which is 5.4 percent higher than 2022’s 925,000 MT. This, however, is 2.5 percent lower than 2021’s 1 million MT largely attributed to the resurgence of ASF cases in Luzon and Mindanao.
The agency said the recent ASF outbreaks in Cebu province which is a major supplier of pork to Metro Manila as well as the cases of the disease in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao limit this year’s potential pork production.
The USDA said consumption of pork will be slightly higher at 1.49 million MT from last year’s 1.48 million with imports expected to decline by 6.25 percent to 525,000 MT from 560,000 MT because of high prices in the international market. Jed Macapagal
