BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The province of Negros Occidental remains free from the African swine fever (ASF) and has enough supply of pork, said Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson amid price hike concerns on hogs and pork products.
A kilogram of pork is being sold at P245 in the city’s public markets, a Jan. 25 price monitoring of the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) showed. This is P25 to P45 higher than the prices monitored in the past weeks.
Pork prices in other parts of the province, meanwhile, ranged from P205 to P213.
Earlier, local hog raisers urged Governor Lacson to make sure the province’s pork supply remain stable. They also suggested limiting the number of hogs being exported to Luzon.
There is currently a huge demand for hogs in Luzon due to low production that is being blamed to the ASF outbreak there.
According to Dr. Renante Decena, PVO chief, the number of hogs shipped to Luzon reached around 5,000 between December last year up to this month.
Negros Occidental, the Philippines’ top backyard swine producer, has a P6-billion hog industry./PN
