Swine producers seek help to meet export target

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines — Swine producers in South Cotabato have called on the Department of Agriculture for funding assistance to expand accredited piggeries' output by 20% as Mindanao prepares to export meat products to Singapore. A refrigerated container van of cut pork products is set to be shipped to Singapore before the end of this month, the first foreign foray for the country’s swine industry. Emilio V. Escobillo, Jr., president of the South Cotabato Swine Producers’ Association, said his group is targeting to capture around 25% of the Singaporean demand for pork meat products without hurting the domestic market. "That’s why participating farms need the necessary funding for expansion of swine farms to meet our target in Singapore. We are asking the help of the Department of Agriculture for us to meet the goal," he said. Singapore’s daily pork requirement reportedly reaches 4,000 heads per day or 120,000 heads a month. But Mr. Escobillo said Mindanao can only supply about 5% or 6,000 heads a month to Singapore to avoid a shortage in the domestic market. He noted that Singapore is strict on the "no antibiotic" requirement on meat products, but that participating swine farms are complying with the standards, including adhering to a trace-ability system. Abusama M. Alid, regional Agriculture director, urged swine producers to submit proposals for an expansion project before the agency as he noted that the country is now ready for the pilot pork shipment to Singapore. Mr. Alid said that the Agriculture department has been assisting the swine industry in South Cotabato, Sarangani and General Santos to boost trade ties with foreign markets. One of the interventions of the agency is the construction of a P50-million meat laboratory inaugurated last week by Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap, he added. Singaporean buyers attended the inauguration and visited the facility of Matutum Meat Packing Corp. in nearby Polomolok, South Cotabato to strengthen links with the company and hog producers in the area. Mr. Escobillo expressed optimism that Singapore’s acceptance of the country’s pork products will open the doors to other foreign markets in the Asian region. In May, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore gave an accreditation to Matutum Meat, the only processor of cut pork meat from the Philippines allowed to ship products to the island state. "We hope to penetrate other markets in Asia now that we are accredited by Singapore," said Stephen G. Castillo, Matutum Meat general manager, stressing that Singapore’s standards serve as the barometer to penetrate other markets in Asia. Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap originally sought to the initial export of pork to take place in July 2007 after announcing the development earlier in the year. Matutum Meat, a sister company of Cebu-based Sunpride Foods, Inc. which produces Holiday corned beef and Sunpride canned goods, has invested around P200 million on a state-of-the-art processing plant in Polomolok town, about 15 minutes from this city. Mindanao has been chosen by the government to initiate the country’s pork exports since the island has been certified as free from foot-and-mouth disease, the recognition coming from the Office International des Epizooties or World Organization for Animal Health. Fund for hog farms Meanwhile, the country’s largest hog farmers’ group has asked the Agriculture department to provide financial assistance to hog farmers whose farms have been hit by diseases. The National Federation of Hog Farmers, Inc., in a letter to Mr. Yap, asked for "the mobilization of agricultural fund facilities such as the Quedancor (Que-dan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp.) and ACEF (Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund) to assist disease-hit farms." During a press briefing Monday, federation Chairman Gabriel H. Uy said such fund would help "compensate" the hog farmers but also "benefit consumers." Cesar D. Ballesteros of the firm Veterinary Consultants and Livestock Supply noted that in the country, when a farm is stricken with disease, hog farmers tend to sell the disease-stricken animals instead of disposing of them because farmers are still recouping from losses due to the disease that plagued Luzon late last year. He added that the fund could also be used for the buffer stocking of vaccines for hog diseases as there is still no fund for such. The group has yet to compute how much money is needed. "What we need are long-term solutions for our problem in diseases," said Mr. Uy, noting that the strain of virus that struck the hog industry last year remains unknown up to now because of the absence of a diagnostic facility in the country to easily identify hog diseases. The federation said the virus strain of the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome has yet to be identified. The result of the test on laboratory samples sent to the United States National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Plum Island, New York won’t come in the next two weeks. — Romer S. Sarmiento and Aizel Joyce A. Catipay, BusinessWorld