Taiwan's agriculture council reveals pig farmers using ractopamine

 

 

Taiwan's Council of Agriculture (COA) has announced to the public the names of three pig raisers discovered to have used illegal feed additives, such as ractopamine, in livestock feed.

 

Taiwanese consumers' prolonged resistance against the imports of US beef containing residue of animal growth additives like ractopamine has unexpectedly exposed that some livestock raisers in Taiwan have also used such banned additives.

 

The discovery has sharply undercut the prices and sales of pork in Taiwan.

 

Mounting pressure from consumer groups is forcing authorities to help livestock raisers impose a voluntary system of self-regulation on the part of farmers themselves to avoid using the forbidden chemical products at the source.

 

The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) under the COA also adopted the supplementary measure of conducting extensive inspections of pig farms throughout Taiwan, with a focus on repeat offenders.

 

The increasing public pressure eventually compelled the bureau to take a further step of exposing the names of violators after they ignored the voluntary self-regulation scheme implemented by the government. The bureau announced yesterday the names of three violators in the first wave of disclosure.

 

The three offenders identified by the bureau included Hsiao Hsin-yu, Lin Li-ping, and Chen Ching-wen. All are pig raisers in southern Pingtung County.

 

Officials said the three have repeatedly used prohibited feed additives like ractopamine, colteral, and salbutamol with excessive residue in the pork.

 

The three have the worst records of repeatedly using the chemical additives, even after their pork had already tested positive for the banned chemicals.

 

Two of the offenders have already been slapped with fines of TWD280,000 (US$9,479) and TWD340,000 (US$11,510) each, while the third was fined TWD60,000 (US$2,031) with some additional pending cases still under review.

 

COA officials made a new call urging pig raisers not to use the banned additives. Offenders will face fines ranging from TWD30,000 (US$1,015) to TWD1.25 million (US$0.04 million), they said.

 

All farmers and raisers of pigs and fowl should forsake the practice of using the prohibited additives because they will be eventually tracked down and hit with fines while devastating the business operations of the whole livestock industry, they said.

 

They said the bureau will continue closely monitoring beef, pork, and other livestock products in Taiwan and make public the names of culprits.