Philippines to import cattle from Mexico

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is set to bring in cattle from Mexico before the year ends as part of the government’s program to develop the local dairy industry.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said Mexico would be the new source of the Girolando dairy cattle and not Brazil which was earlier planned.

“Mexico will be the source of the Girolando because they are FMD-free (foot-and-mouth disease). About 1,600 heads are available,” he said.

“We hope that before the year ends, the cattle would be brought to Bohol,” Piñol added.

Bohol has been chosen as the site to develop the dairy industry with the establishment of a 5,000-head dairy farm estimated to produce 21-million liters of milk annually.

Industry stakeholders, meanwhile, welcomed the DA’s move to import from Mexico instead of Brazil.

“If we will import, let us import from a country that is safe and will not risk the entire industry. Food safety is more premium rather than trade and profit,” the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura said.

The Philippines is among the 66 recognized FMD-free countries where vaccination is not practiced.

“But, we should still follow the protocol of isolating for a few months just to be sure that there would be no tainted animal that would enter the country. We would not want to lose our FMD-free status just because of some haphazard decisions,” SINAG said.

Meanwhile, DA said the dairy program would significantly benefit the province since the offsprings of the imported cattle produced would be used in establishing satellite dairy farms to be owned by the farmers in the different towns of Bohol.

Along with the establishment of the dairy farm in Ubay, the DA plans to partner with big milk companies like Nestle to look into the prospects of establishing a fresh milk-packaging plant in the Ubay Stock Farm.

The program targets to increase the milk and dairy production in the country from 1.8 percent of the national requirement to 10 percent by 2022.

The industry could not supply the local requirement as the country imported 453,000 metric tons of dairy valued at $808 million in 2016.