By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Negros Occidental Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) yesterday assured local consumers that the province has enough supply of pork and poultry products for the upcoming Christmas holidays. 

Provincial veterinary officer, Dr. Renante Decena, said the price of pork is currently averaging at P200 per kilo for Negros Occidental and P220 for Bacolod City.
Dressed chicken, meanwhile, currently runs at P150 to 155 per kilo.
Aside from local supply, Decena said Manila and Cebu are currently the outlets for backyard and commercial meat producers.
The province currently supplies around 800 to 1,000 hogs to Metro Manila every week, of which 80 percent comes from backyard raisers and another 20 percent from commercial raisers.
Around 9,000 market hogs are also being released every month, raising hopes of an early recovery for hog raisers who have also felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The supply of ham, a favorite pork product during the Christmas holidays, is also not affected by the current import ban of pork products in Negros Occidental as there are now two local manufacturers available in the province.
The importation of pork products originating from Luzon and Mindanao has been banned since last year due to the African swine fever./WDJ