Luzon FMD-free but no pork exports yet

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – Hog raisers in Luzon will have to wait a year before they can export pork, but this will depend on whether their areas will remain free from the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) for the rest of the year, Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) chief Divinio Catbagan said yesterday.

Agricultural Secretary Arthur Yap said Mindanao is preparing enough pork products to fill in the demand for at least 200 tons of pork abroad monthly starting July or August. It will be Mindanao’s first export to Singapore since it was declared free from FMD in 2000.

Yap called on all sectors to help keep Luzon free from FMD, noting that he National FMD Task Force is implementing "progressive zoning" with the help of local government units, commercial farms and slaughterhouses in preventing another occurence of the disease that affects the mouth and feet of pigs.

Catbagan said that while Luzon has already been declared FMD-free, clearance from the Paris-based Office Internationale de Epizootees (OIE) is not expected until a year of FMD-free situation in the entire island. Luzon was locally declared free from FMD last January.

He said that while Visayas was also declared free from the disease in 2001, only facilities in General Santos City and Davao have been approved to be at par with international standards. "International parameters require meat laboratories and triple A slaughterhouses, among other requirements," Catbagan said.

During the inauguration here of the country’s first regional avian influenza diagnostic laboratory the other day, Yap said Mindanao is set to export some 200 million tons of pork products initially to Singapore.

"But if there are markets which will open up earlier, then we will give them a chance," he said. "We are looking at 200 tons (of pork exports) per month."

Mindanao-based meat processors Matutom Packaging and Nenita’s are already preparing to export their pork to Singapore, which has expressed interest in local pork after cases of FMD were reported in Malaysia, Singapore’s primary source of pork.

He said that as soon as the OIE gives clearance for Luzon after a year, producers in the area could look forward to a big market abroad. He noted that many pork product producers in Luzon already have facilities complying with international standards.

Records from the Department of Agriculture showed that the hog industry grew 3.9 percent in 2006, grossing P126.5 billion, which represents 14.3 percent of total agricultural production.   

The hog industry is the country’s second major industry after palay, which grew 18.3 percent and grossed P162.5 billion in the same year.    

Local growers exported $650,000 worth of processed meat products from January to September 2006 to Micronesia, United Arab Emirates, Marshall Islands, United States, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Pacific Trust territories, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Italy.