DA believes ASF won't ''really affect'' pork supply situation
The Department of Agriculture (DA) said Sunday that only 167 barangays nationwide are affected by African Swine Fever (ASF) and its spokesperson believes it won't have an effect on supply of pork meat.
“We think it will not really affect the pork supply situation that much,” Assistant Agriculture Secretary Kristine Evangelista told dzBB.
There are 42, 027 barangays in the Philippines, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
“Plus of course, the National Livestock Program has identified which areas were not affected by ASF to improve the production there to compensate for areas that suffered from the disease,” she added.
Evangelista said the DA cannot say there will be a shortage of pork since they are ''vetting the data.''
“There are fears that there will be a shortage in the supply of pork. However, we in the Consumer Affairs are still vetting the data because we are not just depending on the data on the locally-produced pork but also on the inventory of those in the cold storage, which are the imported and frozen pork,” Evangelista said.
“What we are trying to see now is how can we get the data from the non-accredited cold storage facilities to make sure that we have the right data,” she said.
Evangelista said retailers buy fresh pork at P250 per kilo while they sell them from P280 to 295 per kilo.
She said many retailers told her that the demand for pork has declined and are adjusting their prices so they can pay for their store’s rental.
Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, she said the demand for the second quarter based on per capita consumption is 403,000 metric tons.
“Now, we need to bring in data from retailers. And this is where our request to the market master comes in. Please provide us with the inflow and outflow of your products…because that’s how we can determine the buying culture of the public,” she said.
“We can only say if we are sufficient if we are also very sure of the demand,” she added.
Evangelista said they are including farmers groups and customers in their price and volume watch of agricultural products to guide hog producers.
She said farmers groups are saying there is no need to import pork.
“I think that is where they are coming from. Our local producers themselves can feel if the traders are not buying their live hogs as much,” she said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
