March 11, 2008

Philippine pork prices escalate on hog diseases outbreak

Philippine agriculture officials said that the recent upsurge in pork prices were caused by the outbreak of hog diseases in the latter part of 2007.

Pork prices are now at PHP150-160 (US$3.6-3.8) per kilogramme.

Davinio Catbagan, director of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), said high prices are reflective of scant supply, increase of input costs and most importantly, of the hog diseases.

Although the diseases did not cause high mortality, some backyard raisers in Central Luzon sold even healthy hogs as they were afraid of getting their livestock infected, Catbangan explained.

It is estimated that 20 percent0 of backyard raisers had gone out of business last year due to high production costs and disease.

Small backyard raisers make up 70 percent of total hog production in the Philippines.

Pork prices are mainly high in Luzon but not in Visayas and Mindanao where prices still hover around PHP110-120 (US$2.7-2.9) per kg.

Arthur Yap, DA secretary, said the hog industry expects prices to stabilize in the next two months as supply normalizes.