Swine fever scare downs Pampanga pork sales

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Hog raisers and meat producers in Pampanga reported a 75-percent drop in pork sales due to the African swine fever scare.

According to Toto Gonzales, spokesperson for the Pampanga Swine Producers Association (PSPA), their members have been suffering from low sales since last week even if Pampanga is still largely unaffected by the animal disease.

In a meeting with Gov. Dennis Pineda and agriculture officials on Monday, Gonzales said prices of pork also dropped to P100 per kilo from P127 last week.

PSPA has sustained a P15-billion industry, with its commercial farms producing a minimum of 1,500 hogs a day for the domestic market. It directly employs more than 1,600 workers.

To address the glut, PSPA has proposed supplying seven Pampanga-based large meat processing companies that import their pork.

These have stopped buying from countries with cases of African swine fever.

Pineda has agreed to organize a meeting between PSPA members and meat processors.

In Candaba town in Pampanga, backyard hog raisers still have 5,000 hogs to dispatch but they refuse to cull these at a compensation cost of P3,000 each from the government, according to Victoria Sandoval, representative of small hog raisers.

           The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Monday confirmed cases of swine fever in several areas in Central Luzon.