- GILBERT BAYORAN
The provincial government of Negros Occidental is unfazed by the extended ban on the entry of live hogs, piglets, boar semen, and pork related products from Negros Island to Cebu, as ordered by Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, due to the African swine fever concerns.
Provincial Administrator, Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, yesterday said he has not heard any complaint from hog raisers in the province as to the 15-day extension prohibiting the shipment of live pigs and pork related products to Cebu.
Diaz said that local hog raisers have already found other markets elsewhere.
He added that hog raisers are now happy following the increase in prices of hogs and pork products they supply to Metro Manila.
The Bureau of Animal Industry reported that Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental are among the 20 provinces in the country that remain free from the dreaded ASF, as of this time.
Despite the BAI report, the provincial government of Cebu extended for 15 days the temporary ban, or until April 20.
In Executive Order No. 11, series of 2023, Garcia said there is still a need to confer with the stakeholders of the local hog industry, including the mayors of local government units belonging to Cebu, and the respective governors of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, to come up with a common protocol against ASF, hog cholera, and other swine diseases.
“Let them decide what is good for them. We will just decide and take care of our own hog industry, as we deem fit,” Diaz stressed.
Negros Occidental and the highly-urbanized Bacolod City have also banned the entry of live pigs, boar semen, sows, piglets, and pork-related products from Cebu, due to the detection of ASF in the island province.
The value of Negros Occidental’s hog industry is pegged at P6 billion./GB
