August 27, 2009

The Philippine government is sponsoring a nationwide consultation next week with hog raisers in Mindanao in preparation for the anticipated spike in demand for pork during the Yuletide season.

Rafael Mercado, chief of the livestock division of the Davao regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA), said the surge may not be large enough to disturb the supply pattern.

The consultation would be held on September 4 which will draw hog raisers from all the regions of Mindanao, which supplies Cebu and other Central Visayan cities. DA officials from the central office would hear their evaluation reports.

Mercado said there have been no reported disruptions in the major hog-raising cities of General Santos and Davao, and the provinces of Bukidnon, Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato.

In Davao City alone, hog raisers produce 36,000 heads during the first six months of the year, the city's production average.

Mindanao has been supplying Cebu's demand for 17,000 heads; the 7,400 pigs needed by Butuan City in northeastern Mindanao; the 3,226 hogs required by Tacloban City, Leyte; and the 2,800 needed by Surigao, also in northeastern Mindanao.

Mercado said there had been no reported outbreak or known contamination of the hogs in the country with the swine flu. It was rather hog cholera in January this year that hit southern municipalities of Davao del Sur.

Livestock technicians have been sent again to the production areas to immunize the livestock with the anticholera vaccines "to anticipate this season of outbreak," Mercado said.