The Provincial Veterinary Office has augmented the members of the task force on African Swine Fever in various ports of Bacolod City and Negros Occidental to monitor the entry of meat products this holiday season.
Provincial Veterinarian, Dr. Renante Decena, said two more personnel were added to the eight staff assigned at Bredco Port in Bacolod for a 24-hour monitoring. More personnel were also assigned to the ports in Cadiz, San Carlos, and Escalante.
They also increased the number of staff assigned at the Bacolod-Silay Airport for the holidays.
Decena said because of online business transactions, meat product producers from other provinces use courier service to send banned items to Negros Occidental.
He added that the task force intercepted at the Bacolod-Silay Airport meat products mixed with nonfood items from Metro Manila through a courier cargo last month. The seized items were burned at the airport compound.
Negros Occidental remains free from ASF and has passed an ordinance prohibiting the entry of hogs and pork products from areas hit by the virus.
Meanwhile, Decena assured that the province has enough supply of meat products, particularly ham, for the holiday season.
The province has two large producers of meat products and a lot of backyard producers of ham that can answer the demand, he said.
Products from Cebu manufacturers are also allowed to enter the province. Cebu province is also ASF-free.
The PVO also expects lower demand for meat products this year because of the decrease in the purchasing power of consumers brought by the COVID pandemic.
The PVO market monitoring team has also observed a slight increase in the prices of pork sold in big markets, although Decena considered the price movement to be still stable. He said this is an effect of the recent high demand of Metro Manila for live pigs coming from the Visayas Region.
There is also enough supply of eggs.
Decena added that because of favorable weather in the region, the layers are in full production capacity. Supplies from Bantayan and Mindanao are also sent to Negros Occidental.
Decena estimates that 500,000 eggs are consumed daily in the province. -MML
