Philippines opens 2021 with 3-million drop in swine inventory

The Philippines opened 2021 with a 3-million drop in the total swine inventory, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported, as the government scrambles to boost supply amid the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak.

Preliminary data released by the PSA showed that the total swine inventory was estimated at 9.72 million heads as of January 01, 2021 versus the 12.80 million reported the previous year. Broken down, 71.1% were raised in backyard farms while the remaining 28.9% were from commercial farms.

The top three sources of inventory were Regions VI (Western Visayas) accounting for 12.5% with 1.211 million heads; VII (Central Visayas) accounting for 12.1% or 1.176 million heads, and IVA (Calabarzon) accounting for 11.0% or 1.064 million heads.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) earlier blamed the storms in the last quarter of 2020 and the ASF outbreak for the decline in the supply and the recent spike in prices of agricultural goods such as pork and chicken, among others.

Latest data available from the DA's price monitoring shows prevailing prices of pork ham (kasim) at P270 per kilogram and pork belly (liempo) at P300 per kilogram as of Tuesday, February 09, following the implementation of the price cap on February 08 which mandated the ceiling at the same prices.

Prior to this, prevailing prices of kasim were at P350 per kilogram, and liempo at P380 per kilogram as of last Friday, February 05.

The government is also looking to increase the minimum access volume (MAV) for pork to 388,790 metric tons (MT) this year from the current 54,000 MT to augment local supply as the DA project a deficit of 400,000 MT. -MDM, GMA News