More than 164K hogs shipped to Metro Manila

MANILA, Philippines — More than 164,000 heads of hogs have been delivered to Metro Manila in over a month in line with efforts to augment the supply and stabilize pork prices in the market, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said yesterday.

From Feb. 8 to March 14, according to its data, a total of 164,819 heads of hogs and 1,110,980 kilos of carcasses were delivered to the National Capital Region by local hog raisers.

The Calabarzon region – comprising of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon provinces – supplied the largest number of live hogs, accounting for 46.07 percent of total deliveries.

This was followed by Western Visayas with 16.64 percent and Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan provinces) with a 10.38-percent share.

In addition, Soccsksargen (South Cotabato, Cotabato City, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, General Santos) contributed 9.26 percent while Bicol accounted for 6.46 percent of the total hog deliveries.

Hog shipments were also made from other regions such as Central Luzon, Northern Mindanao, Zamboanga peninsula, Central Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Ilocos and Cagayan Valley.

Central Luzon shipped the largest volume of carcasses, accounting for 97.15 percent, followed by the Bicol region with 2.05 percent and Zamboanga peninsula with 0.70 percent.

The DA earlier said it was looking to deliver to Metro Manila at least 15,000 hogs per week for two months to stabilize pork prices in the market.

Memorandum Order 14 issued by Agriculture Secretary William Dar provided the implementing guidelines for the procurement of hogs from Feb. 8 to April 8.

Dar said hogs would be directly sourced from eligible local producers through negotiated procurement and supervised by the DA regional field offices.

The government has imposed a 60-day price ceiling of P270 for kasim or pork shoulder, P300 for liempo or pork belly and P160 per kilo for chicken in Metro Manila markets.

Yesterday, the prevailing price of kasim in Metro Manila markets registered at P320 per kilo while the prevailing price of liempo amounted to P350 per kilo.

Last month, the DA said a transport subsidy shall be based on the source of hogs and or pork in a box/whole carcasses, particularly P21 per kilo if it is sourced from Mindanao; P15 per kilo if it is sourced from the Visayas and Regions I, II, IV-B and V; and P10 per kilo if it is coming from Regions III and IV-A.

Hog raisers claimed last week that they have yet to receive any transport subsidy from the DA.

National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. president Chester Warren Tan stressed that adjusting the price ceiling upward would be more effective than providing transport subsidy for the shipment of hogs and carcasses from the provinces to Metro Manila.

The Philippine swine industry, which is worth about P200 billion a year, has been hit by the African swine fever (ASF) since 2019.

Data from the DA show that as of February, a total of 2,402 barangays in 40 provinces in the country have been affected by the ASF. This translates to a total of 68,382 farmers affected. In addition, more than 400,000 hogs have been culled. Stakeholders earlier, however, placed losses at more than four million hogs.