THE government is willing to spend at least P180 million to put up 5 triple “A” slaughterhouses in major hog-raising areas in the Philippines, officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Monday.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said the government will meet with the private sector in two weeks to discuss the mechanics for the construction and operation of the top-grade abattoirs.

“The President has expressed his willingness to finance a program [that will involve] the construction of triple-A slaughterhouses and the installation of blast-freezing equipment,” said Alcala during his speech at the opening ceremony of the Meat Safety Consciousness Week held in Quezon City Monday.

Alcala noted that the government has the money to construct the slaughterhouses and install the blast-freezing equipment.

“We will be willing to spend more than P180 million if we have to,” he said in an ambush interview after the event.

Cold Chain Association of the Philippines president Anthony Dizon said some P50 million is needed to install the needed blas-freezing equipment in major hog-raising areas.

The private sector led by the Pork Producers Federation (Propork) and the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (Pampi) is urging the government to consider allowing the private sector to have a hand in operating the abattoirs.

Propork president Edwin Chen said they will recommend to the government the construction of the slaughterhouses in major hog-raising areas in Central Luzon and the Bicol Region in Luzon.

Jane Bacayo, chief of the National Meat Inspection Services (NMIS), said that the government is keen on starting the construction of the slaughterhouses in the first quarter of 2012.

Meat from “AAA” abattoirs are generally regarded as being of the highest quality and could be exported.

Hog raisers have been asking the government to put up more AAA abattoirs and install cold-storage facilities to prepare their sector for the full implementation of a free-trade scheme among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) which started January 2010.

Chen disclosed that hog raisers are now amenable to selling pork parts to meat processors as a way of making the local sector more competitive against imports.

In the past, hog raisers had insisted on selling entire carcasses to meat processors.

The Philippines, Propork noted, imported some 177,000 metric tons (MT) of imported meat products last year. Hog raisers have complained that the importation of meat products have resulted in the decline of demand for their products.