BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental swine raisers are losing P18 million weekly due to the hog ban imposed by Cebu province, data from the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) showed.
Dr. Placeda Lemana, PVO officer-in-charge, said commercial hog raisers are now trying to find a way to ship their hogs to other areas as Cebu governor Gwendolyn Garcia has not replied to the appeal of Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson to open a corridor for Negros Occidental hogs being shipped to Eastern Visayas.
Lemana said one of the options hog raisers have taken is to ship their hogs to Mindanao via Dipolog City in Zamboanga del Norte.
However, the transport cost to Mindanao is too expensive as some of the products will be shipped to far-flung towns and cities.
Among the affected of the hog ban was the supposed shipment of 1,116 hog heads to Cebu, Leyte, Samar, Luzon, and Mindanao.
Negros Occidental also ships 122 heads of pork for lechon and 7,060 kilograms of frozen pork to Cebu.
Lemana said the surveillance by the PVO and Department of Agriculture affirmed that Negros Occidental remains free from the African Swine Fever (ASF).
Earlier, the Cebu governor issued an executive order implementing a temporary ban on the entry of live hogs, sows, piglets, boar semen, pork, and pork-related products from Negros Island from March 6 to April 5, 2023. This came after ASF was detected in Carcar City, Cebu.
The ASF-positive swine allegedly mingled with those from Negros Island but both the Occidental and Oriental provinces remain ASF-free.
Carcar City was placed under a state of calamity on Monday, March 13.
Lacson and Bacolod City mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez issued a joint executive order on March 7 prohibiting the entry of pork products from Cebu province, including the Bantayan and Camotes islands.
Canned goods were exempted as most of Negros’ imports originated from Cebu.
Negros Occidental is one of the top backyard hog producers in the country, with an industry pegged at more than P6 billion./PN
