Group urges gov’t to stop pork imports

A coalition of agribusiness groups yesterday called on the government to stop issuing new import permits for pork to help shore up measures against African swine fever, which the Department of Agriculture (DA) claimed had been “controlled and contained.”

“With the declaration of Bureau of Animal Industry of the African swine fever at outbreak level, we call on Agriculture Secretary William Dar to suspend the issuance of SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary clearances) for pork importation and cancel all SPS currently being processed for pork imports,” said Rosendo So, chair of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag).

“We ask all pertinent agencies to increase our border control and fully implement the quarantine policy,” So said in a statement. “We ask our partners at the local government units to remain vigilant against imported frozen meat being sold at the wet markets because the source of African swine fever is tainted, imported pork.”

Sinag also asked the DA to increase the indemnity to backyard hog raisers to P5,000 per head of hogs lost to the disease, from the current P3,000 per head.

“We ask the public to continue to patronize our local pork that remains safe, clean and wholesome,” said So. “Our Pinoy pork is safe to eat.”

In a separate statement, San Miguel Foods Inc. said its products were “absolutely safe to eat” and not affected by the African swine fever.

The company noted that, with the alert raised against the disease, there were reports that several provinces had started issuing total bans on the entry of live and processed pork products from various parts of Luzon.

“(Our) products should therefore be made available nationwide for consumers to continue to enjoy,” the San Miguel subsidiary said. “It is important to note, though, that African swine fever does not affect humans and therefore does not pose any risk to human health.”

Also, San Miguel Food said all their hogs were fed with sanitized feeds from their B-MEG plants “using raw materials that are checked for contaminants that may affect food safety.”

“Our hog-growing farms are kept separate from our breeding animals in order to minimize cross contamination and break potential disease cycles,” the company said. “Our animal health programs are preventive in nature and are centered around biosecurity, disinfection and vaccination.”