Bohol live hogs to stabilize

pork in ASF hit provinces

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Feb 10 (PIA)—A huge opportunity for Boholano hog growers who wish to capitalize on being among the few remaining provinces declared as African Swine Fever-free, opens and the Capitol’s concerned office is working on the coordination to get the plan going.

With Cebu City now finding ways to satisfy a need for pork with a hog disease hitting local suppliers, suppliers are now looking at Bohol for a supply of 200 heads of lechonon per week and another 4000 heads per month live hogs for supplying Cebu markets with pork.

Mandy Carlos, representing Ayers Lechon of Cebu, said they need 13 to 70 kilos of live hogs for lechon, or a total of about 4,000 per month of hogs for slaughter.

Yet another trader is eyeing to get into Negros Island with some 700 to 1000 heads per month, that is if the local supply can meet the need.

Romero Obguia of Tubigon, is also making things possible, should Bohol hog raisers decide to supply some 700 to 1,000 heads per shipment.

Since there is no established route for Bohol to Bacolod and Ilo-ilo, Obguia is chartering a hog barge to deliver the hogs to Negros, but every delivery has to be at least 700 heads for slaughter from 80 to over a hundred kilos, for a break even cost and for the delivery to be profitable.

During the Consultative Conference for local swine traders, buyers and raisers held to implement the coordination for the possible supply plan for Cebu and Negros, at the Capitol Ceremonial Hall, Provincial Veterinarian Dr. Stella Marie Lapiz, said Bohol hog raisers have not really benefitted from the island being among the very few provinces that are ASF-free.

“We have not really received any incentive despite being ASF Free , and in fact, the prevailing price of live weight is from P160-200,” Dr Lapiz pointed out.

The price for pork in the local markets however ranges from P280 to P350, which is almost the same as the market display price in areas hit by ASF.

In the cheap buying of live weight hogs, the marketing prospect in Cebu is too tempting, admits a raiser who pointed out that a P5 buying difference is already good enough to recover what has been lost compared to local buying prices, which is low probably due to a local oversupply, a hog raiser pointed out.

Marketing to Cebu however is not as simple as it sounds.

With Cebu opening, hogs from Bohol could only land in Cebu City and goes directly to their slaughterhouse.

With the possibility of contamination when using the same hog transport in Bohol to Cebu, an ordinance here restricts vehicles used in hog transport from across the islands coming in, therefore only local transport would be used to round up the local supply and deliver them to a consolidation area where this could be loaded to a hog container for shipping.

The consolidation area should be some place where it’s away from the searing heat, with a good water supply to keep the stocks free from stress to keep them from dying.

This could incur additional costs for traders.

On this, the OPV as well as the local traders here initiated steps to help put up the necessary supply.

Edgar Suarez, sales agent for a commercial-feeds brand said he would ask his agents to help consolidate, if only to help growers get the value for their sacrifices, than sell these cheap here.

A memorandum circular issued by Gov Erico Aristotle Aumentado orders towns to reactivate their local price coordinating councils in a bid to put in place a local price monitoring and enforcement team so that an enabling legislation for all of Bohol could be crafted to go after buyers and traders who buy cheap and sell high to rack in on profits. (rahc/PIA_7/Bohol)

AYERS LECHON. Representative of the popular roast pig company in Cebu is now shifting his attention to Bohol as they need 200 13 to 70 kilos of live hog every week to supply their operations. The problem however is that they can not use a vehicle to collect and consolidate the local supply, due to an existing restriction. (PIABohol)

ADDITIONAL COSTS. Chartering a boat to load livestock to Negros proved to be expensive but can be economically viable if the supply reaches 700 to 1000 heads, to cover the costs enough so that local buying prices could still be at P180 per kilo live weight, says trader Romero Obguia, during a consultative conference last week. (PIABOHOL)