Bacolod City – Hog raisers in African Swine Fever (ASF) free Negros Occidental are slowly finding markets in Luzon, after Cebu banned the entry of live pigs, boar semen, and pork related products coming from the province, on March 6 to April 5.
Provincial Administrator Atty. Rayfrando Diaz said Negros Occidental is now a major supplier of hog products in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson had requested Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to allow the passage of hogs and pork products being transported from the province to Eastern Visayas.
However, Garcia has yet to reply to the request of Lacson.
Negros Occidental and Bacolod City have also imposed a ban on entry of all hogs, pork related products from Cebu, including Bantayan and Camotes Islands, following confirmed detection of ASF cases in Carcar, Cebu, by the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
Diaz said that hog raisers in Negros Occidental are now content, that despite the ban imposed by the Cebu provincial government on the entry of hogs and its products, they were able to open a market in other areas in the country.
He, however admitted that prices there are a bit lower compared to Cebu and in Eastern Visayas.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is also assisting the Provincial ASF Task Force in blocking the entry of pork products into Negros Occidental.
Cmdr. Joe Luviz Mercurio, PCG northern Negros station chief, said that they have started training some of their dogs to specifically sniff out pork products, to further bolster the province’s anti-ASF protocols. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)