BACOLOD City – This province will have sufficient meat supply during the period of the 14-day enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, according to the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO).
PVO head Dr. Renante Decena said on March 30 that they provided Gov. Eugenio Lacson a copy of the situational analysis on meat supply from March 30 until April 14.
“In general, we have enough supply of meat products during the two-week ECQ,” he added.
Negros Occidental has a stable supply of
pork, chicken and goat meat aside from carabao meat, which serves as an
alternative to beef.
“In live sales during auction market, we have plenty of animals for sale,” the
PVO chief said.
Decena also added that this province continues to maintain its African Swine fever-free status.
Negros Occidental has already banned the entry of swine, pork and other pork based products from Luzon and Mindanao in a bid to protect its P6 billion industry from the dreaded swine disease.
On the other hand, this province has a deficit in eggs by almost 40 percent in commercial production. Fortunately, the Negrense backyard raisers augment supply using free-range chicken eggs.
Earlier, the Department of Agriculture in Western Visayas issued food passes and food lane vehicle pass cards to the suppliers and farm producers of Negros Occidental.
The move is to ensure that the movement of all cargoes, agriculture and fishery inputs, food products, and agribusiness personnel in the whole region during the community quarantine period will not be hampered. (With a report from PNA/PN)
