April 27, 2021

African swine cases in the Philippines on the downtrend

William Dar, Philippines' Agriculture Secretary, said African swine fever (ASF) positive sample totals in the country has dropped from 337 in February and 286 in March to 98 in April in a briefing by economic managers, ABS-CBN News reported.

ASF positive samples was 1,773 in August 2020 and 1,556 the following month.

ASF has been cited as the cause for meat inflation in the country, resulting in the overall inflation surpassing the government's target of 2% to 4% in the first three months of this year.

Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte announced a price cap on fresh pork, then an executive order to lower tariffs on frozen pork imports and permit additional pork to be imported in the country to tackle rising pork prices.

Some lawmakers have discussed to possibly veto the executive order on imports because they believe the government should focus on increasing expenditure on supporting the domestic swine industry.

- ABS-CBN