Hog farmers call for five-day ‘pork holiday’

Hog farmers allied with the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) are rallying support for a planned nationwide, five-day “pork holiday” as they lay down their demands for Malacañang to act on their pleas related to the smuggling of pig meat.

According to Sinag, its members would temporarily refrain from bringing their animals to the abattoir to call attention to “the dire situation” they are facing, especially backyard growers with about 20 hogs each.

“In a span of six years, or since the assumption into office of President Aquino, more than 100,000 backyard hog raisers and their families have lost their only source of livelihood,” Sinag chair Rosendo So said in an interview.

Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, he said the stock of hogs in backyard farms fell by 23 percent or 2 million hogs to 7.78 million last year from 9.54 million in 2010.

In a separate interview, Agriculture Undersecretary Jose Reaño said backyard farmers had actually gained strength since they now account for 70 percent to 75 percent of national inventory of about 15 million hogs from just 55 percent a couple of years ago.

But Sinag’s So said even the once viable commercial hog farms were threatened as smuggling continued to undermine the local livestock industry.

“Data from our trading partners validate our claim on the flourishing trade of smuggling in the last six years,” he said, adding that 202,936 tons of pork were smuggled into the country from 2010 to 2014.

“Farm gate prices have decreased alarmingly from P110-P155 per kilo to a low of P85-90 a kilo, barely exceeding the cost of production for backyard growers,” said So.

To address the situation, Sinag demands that President Aquino immediately sign the approved bills that define the smuggling of agricultural commodities as an act constituting economic sabotage.

The group also wants the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to designate a quarantine area for the unloading of all containers and the conduct of 100-percent quarantine and inspection services of all pork/meat imports with declared tariff of 5 percent to 10 percent.

Also, Sinag said cargo with insufficient documents should not be processed and deemed smuggled and subject to immediate confiscation.