April 9, 2008

Philippine hog raisers seek government help on soaring feed prices
 

The country's hog raisers are asking the government for a continued support to sustain their production capacities amidst the skyrocketing prices for feeds.

During a press conference held in Cebu recently, National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. president Albert R.T. Lim, Jr. said rising costs of corn and soy is the primary reason why market pork prices are also high these days. He said that hog raisers are forced to increase prices of their products to generate an ample return of their investments.

Lim stressed a lot of households could no longer afford buy pork with more price hikes.

In terms of per capita of pork consumption, Lim said the country has the lowest from its other Asian neighbors. For every one Filipino he said that only 14 kilos of pork is consumed for a year whereas, in China one person consumes 30 kilos.

Due to the difficult times and the increase in prices of goods, he said a lot of people from the population can no longer afford to eat pork meat.

Lim said that in this problem on price increases, the most affected raisers are the backyard farmers which produce 70 percent of hog supply in the country.

With the increasing prices of feeds, he said farmers cannot get the right pricing for their pigs because their breeds are not valued highly.