Farmers’ group warns of bigger spike in pork prices

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) warned that the retail price of pork – which hit as high as P420 per kilo in Metro Manila markets yesterday – could further increase following reports of a looming shortage due to the African swine fever (ASF).

In an interview with The STAR, PCAFI president Danilo Fausto said the deficiency in supply will happen if ASF continues to spread in the Visayas.

“We will have shortage of pork as Visayas is being hit by ASF. The pork supply in the NCR (National Capital Region) comes from Visayas,” Fausto said.

Based on latest monitoring of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the retail price of pork liempo reached as high as P420 per kilo whereas last week, it was only at P390 per kilo.

“The P420 per kilo will still go up. The government will have a big problem here. If that happens, there will be a shift of consumer preference from hogs or pigs or pork consumption, they will shift to chickens so we need to beef up our poultry supply,” Fausto added.

During the Price and Volume Watch for Livestock and Poultry Meeting in Quezon City last Thursday, National Livestock Program director Ruth Miclat-Sonaco projected the shortage in pork supply by June would be at least 46,104 metric tons.

This shortage, seen to last 39 days, is due to the ASF outbreak in 14 regions of the country and with the demand for pork in June reaching 145,849 MT, she said.   – Gilbert Bayoran