HOG raisers are asking the government to come up with a program on restocking for backyard raisers and to provide loans to commercial raisers from the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (Acef) to allow them to increase their production.

National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NFHFI) president Albert Lim said these are their major recommendations, as hog raisers concluded the 17th Hog Conference in Cebu City Monday.

“We urged the Department of Agriculture [DA] to put special emphasis on the Visayas and Mindanao given the [prevalance] of hog diseases in Luzon,” said Lim in an interview.

The NFHFI official said increasing production in the Visayas and Mindanao will be crucial in the face of fluctuations in hog supply in Luzon due to diseases that ravaged hog farms in the region.

“Also, we need to prop up supply so that the country can take advantage of the opportunities presented by the decision of the Singaporean government to allow pork exports from the Philippines,” said Lim.

Backyard raisers in Luzon, which supply about 60 percent of the pork requirements of the region, had to contend with a number of hog diseases, such as hog cholera and porcine diarrhea syndrome.

“Pork prices at the retail level would have shot up to unprecedented levels in Luzon if hog raisers in the Visayas and Mindanao did not augment Luzon’s pork supply,” he noted.

NFHFI, however, allayed fears that there will be a severe shortage of pork in the Philippines. This, despite the admission of some hog raisers in the Visayas and Mindanao that stopped operating to cut their losses.

Good prices and the opening up of the Singapore market for local pork exports are expected to motivate existing hog raisers to continue increasing their production.

Earlier, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore has granted accreditation to the Matutum Meat Packing Plant in Mindanao. This effectively paves the way for the opening of the Singaporean market to Philippine pork.

The National Meat Inspection Service has said the volume for shipment to Singapore remains uncertain at this time because of the current crunch being felt in hog supply in Luzon.

THE Philippine government, through the National Food Authority (NFA), will buy palay from farmers at P17 per kilogram until December this year.

THE European Union (EU) has urged the Philippines to start negotiations for the partnership cooperation agreement (PCA), a prerequisite deal for Manila to qualify in the comprehensive free-trade agreement (FTA) between the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

HOG raisers are asking the government to come up with a program on restocking for backyard raisers and to provide loans to commercial raisers from the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (Acef) to allow them to increase their production.

AUSPHIL Tollways Corp., the proponent of the North Luzon East Expressway (NLEE) project, expects its P13.6-billion tollway project to generate gross revenues of about P3 billion every year.

SORSOGON CITY—The Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) is pursuing a new geothermal-energy project within a vast forest area here amid apprehensions by thousands of farm owners and workers that it would dry up irrigation water for their rice farms down the project site.

A UNITED Nations-assisted project, which aims to rid the country’s polychlorinated byphenyls (PCBs) in equipment and waste, kicked off recently with public and private stakeholders taking part in a one-day inception workshop at the Sulô Hotel in Quezon City.