By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
The hog ban imposed by the Cebu provincial government will cost P18 million in shipping expenses for local hog producers in Negros Occidental, based on data from the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO).
PVO officer-in-charge Dr. Placeda Lemana said commercial hog raisers in the province are trying to find ways to ship their hogs to other areas in the country.
This comes after Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia issued an executive order implementing a temporary ban on the entry of live hogs, sows, piglets, boar semen, pork, and pork-related products from Negros Island on March 6 to April 5, 2023.
Lemana said one of the options hog raisers have taken is to transport their hogs to Mindanao via Zamboanga del Norte’s Dipolog City.
However, shipping costs to far-flung towns and cities in Mindanao are too expensive.
Among the affected include 1,116 hogs which were supposed to be shipped to Cebu, Leyte, Samar, Luzon, and Mindanao.
The province also ships 122 pork heads for lechon and 7,060 kilograms of frozen pork to Cebu.
Lemana added that surveillance by the PVO and the Department of Agriculture affirms that Negros Occidental remains free of African swine fever (ASF).
Garcia has not replied to the appeal of Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson to open a corridor for the hogs from Negros Occidental to be shipped to Eastern Visayas.
The order came after ASF was detected in Cebu province’s Carcar City, which was placed in a state of calamity on Monday, March 13.
The city reported that 58 of the 149 hogs had tested positive for ASF.
This comes after pigs allegedly mingled with ASF-positive hogs from Negros Island.
However, Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental remain ASF-free.
Lacson and Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Benitez issued a joint executive order on March 7, prohibiting the entry of pork products from Cebu province, including the Bantayan and Camotes islands.
Canned goods were exempted as most of the imports originated from Cebu.
Lacson said the food supply in Negros Occidental will be negatively affected as most of the processed and canned pork products being imported into the province were from the nearby Cebu province.
Negros Occidental, one of the top backyard hog producers in the country with an industry pegged at more than P6 billion, has already implemented strict biosecurity protocols since December of last year, after ASF cases were detected in neighboring Iloilo province./DGB, WDJ