Gov’t eyes pork exports to China

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is looking to export pork to China amid a supply glut in the local market.

The exports are also seen to ease the congestion in cold-storage facilities here and bring up the commodity’s farm-gate price.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said in a briefing that the agency was banking on the greater demand for pork in China following the drastic effect of the African swine fever (ASF) on its hog industry.

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, the virus had already led to the decimation of more than a million hogs in China, which could cut production by 35 percent.

The agriculture chief is planning to travel to the East Asian nation in two weeks’ time to secure agreements with the Chinese government. While no estimates were provided on the volume of pork the local industry could provide, Piñol said the country’s raisers were surely capable of filling China’s shortfall.

“We are seriously looking at exporting pork to China because of what is going on with its hog industry,” he said. “We’re just waiting for the guidelines. Once the big players start exporting pork, then our local hog producers would have a breather. I am positive this will stabilize prices.”

The agency is hoping to start the exportation before the year ends, noting that Charoen Pokphand Foods Philippines Corp., a Thai company based in the Philippines, was already ironing an agreement with China.

While there are other countries also considering to open a new market for their local hog industries in China, the warming relationship between Manila and Beijing has resulted to the relaxation of the latter’s non-tariff barriers and the signing of numerous agreements involving agriculture.

Local hog producers have been asking the DA to put a stop to the importation of pork after the farm-gate price for the commodity reached its lowest in more than four years due to oversupply.

The surplus in production, according to industry group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, was enough to fill the country’s requirements for the next nine months.

The entry of ASF in China has been drastic for its industry. Raisers began to cull hogs, including sows or breeders, to stop the virus from spreading, and it would take years before the industry could recover.