US hog farmers seek ban on pork from China, Vietnam, Cambodia
30-JUL-2008 Intellasia | Philippine Star
Jul 30, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
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America's National Federation of Hog Farmers, Inc. (NFHFI) urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) yesterday to ban the importation of pork products from China, Vietnam and Cambodia based on phytosanitary concerns.
In a press conference, NFHFI officials, led by Gabriel H. Uy and Alex M. Reyes, said the pork disease that hit the country last year and almost devastated the local hog industry has still not been properly identified.
The two said the disease, suspected as being the porcine respiratory syndrome (PRS) also known as the Blue Ear disease, came from China.
China's own pork industry was badly affected and it is suspected that when the disease was first detected, some of the tainted pork stock was still exported to nearby Vietnam and Cambodia and then possibly to the Philippines, resulting in the spread of the disease.
Uy and Reyes said that it is possible that instead of totally destroying the diseased hogs, China may have frozen the suspected pig stocks and processed them into other pork products or into pork meal.
Such tainted pork products, Uy and Reyes warned, may again find their way into the Philippines, mostly through smuggling.
The entry of the tainted pork products from the affected countries of China, Vietnam and Cambodia, Uy and Reyes said, could reinfect the still recovering Philippine hog industry.
Reyes said the hog industry is expected to contract by four% this year due to the lingering effect of the pork disease that primarly affected about 70% of the country's backyard farmers.
The loss of consumer confidence in local pork products, the NHFHI said, has aggravated the problems of the local hog industry which is also reeling from the rising cost of feed inputs,
Farmgate prices for live hog, Uy and Reyes said, is now down to P80 per kilo, but retail prices are still at a high of P180 per kilo.
In its recently concluded 17th Hog Farmers Convention held in Subic, Zambales, the NFHFI reiterated its appeal for the DA to remove tariff duties on soybeans, soybean meal, dried distillers grain solubles (DDGS), tapioca residue pellets and feed wheat.
The feed ingredients, the NFHFI pointed out, are not produced locally and compose over 50% of local feed production cost.
Removing import duties on the feed ingredients would significantly improve the hog industry's capability to produce pork and pork products at a reasonable cost.
Apart from the tariff removal, the hog farmers are also urging the DA increase corn production.
Corn comprises 50% of the feed formula and takes up to 60% of the cost of animal production.
"It is necessary that the country develop self-sufficiency in corn if we are to maintain our capability to meet our own meat requirements."
The NFHFI is also seeking the establishment of fully-equipped animal disease diagnostic laboratories in key regions of the country to ensure the prompt and adequate diagnosis of current and emerging animal diseases. -Marianne V. Go/Philstar
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