April 24, 2020

 

Philippine province's hog growers face transport woes

 

 

Hog raisers in Batangas, Philippines are facing difficulty in moving produce after the closure of several major roads despite the government's directive to allow the unrestrained transport of agriculture products, reported The Philippine Star.

 

The Batangas Hog Raisers Association said concrete barriers were placed between the boundaries of major roads essential for the transport of livestock products and feed deliveries.

 

Ordered closed by the local government are the Lipa-Ibaan Road, Lipa-Alaminos Road, Lodlod Ave. Lipa-San Jose Diversion Road, and Bulate Road.

 

The provincial road closure will effectively stop those coming from Sto. Tomas, Alaminos, San Pablo, and Quezon from passing.

 

Veterinarian and Batangas Hog Raisers Association coordinator Ruel Caranzo said the road closure was sudden and there has been no advisory of such move.

 

"We will not have any issue if there has been an advisory before the implementation of road closures. At least all concerned citizens will be well-informed," Caranzo said.

 

The move of the LGU is a violation of the directive of the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases which stipulated the unimpeded movement and distribution of essential items and agriculture and food commodities to ensure stable supply in all areas.

 

Batangas is the second largest producer of hogs in the country.

 

The Batangas Police Provincial Office said the closure of the access road is the result of its intervention to control the continuous spread of COVID-19 and that said actions were properly coordinated with the LGU prior to its implementation.

 

It encouraged those affected to use the other access roads like the National Highways and Star Tollway.

 

"This would result in additional cost on the part of the farmers and low production output due to long travel time," Caranzo said.

 

"On the side of the consumers, there might be low supply of pork as some farms will divert to other market areas and higher prices of livestock products because of the add-on cost," he said.

 

Raisers maintained all produce to be transported are free from the African swine fever. They said there have been no new ASF cases since the first incident in Laurel in Batangas in February.