By: KEN E. CAGULA
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Pork dealers here appealed for government assistance as sales “hugely” dropped in the wake of African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak.
Earlier this month, authorities declared the entry of ASF in Davao City, initially affecting two villages in Calinan District–Brgy. Dominga and Brgy. Lamanan. Last week, Brgy Inayangan, still in Calinan District, was confirmed to also have ASF cases.
Since then, sales of fresh and processed meat dropped to as low as 50 percent, said pork dealer Eden Guira, during a press conference on Monday (Feb. 24). That is, from P100,000 income/day to only P35,000-P40,000/day.
“That amount is not yet enough for me to pay my laborers,” Guira added.
Teodora Guira, who distributes processed pork products to other areas in Mindanao, said that sales from other provinces also went down after local governments prohibited the sales of processed pork products from Davao City.
“Our buyers from Malungon, Gensan, Mati, Surigao, Butuan, said they were given a memorandum prohibiting the sales of products such as chorizo, embutido, tocino and lumpia shanghai from Davao,” she lamented.
Davao City slaughterhouse Operations Manager Chalemagne Aldevera Jr. noted that from about 500 pigs in a day on previous months, only around 200 pigs were processed at the time of this writing.
“What we are processing are only for the consumption in Davao City because our pork cannot go outside of the city as a result of the lockdown,” Aldevera said.
Allaying fears from other consumers, pork dealers stressed that the meat being sold in public markets in the city came only from registered farms, are provided with certifications, and are not from backyard farms susceptible to ASF. (davaotoday.com)
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