By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Negros Occidental provincial administrator Atty. Rayfrando Diaz urged Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia to reconsider the latter’s executive order banning the entry of pork products from Negros Island.

Diaz said the Cebu provincial government should reconsider its banning as the Department of Agriculture had not classified Negros Occidental as an African swine fever (ASF) affected area.

He said there are now growing concerns among local swine producers, especially those who are shipping their products to Eastern Visayas.

“This is a matter of food security of other provinces,” Diaz said.

Based on an executive order signed by Garcia, Cebu province will implement a temporary ban on the entry of live hogs, sows, piglets, boar semen, pork, and pork-related products from Negros Island into Cebu from March 6 to April 5, 2023.

Garcia’s executive order was in response to the detection of ASF virus from blood samples of hogs in Cebu province’s Carcar City last March 1.

According to the report, the blood samples were taken from the pigs that had mingled with other pigs allegedly from Negros and being kept in stockyards.

However, Garcia did not specifically say as to which part of Negros the pigs they were keeping in the stockyard originated.

Negros Occidental has a P6 billion swine industry and is one of the top exporters of pork products in the country.

Ever since the appearance of ASF, Negros Occidental has already taken steps to protect its own swine industry by implementing a ban on the entry of pork products coming from ASF-affected areas.

Negros Occidental has also remained ASF-free due to its strict implementation of biosecurity protocols./DGB, WDJ