Zubiri suggests halt in pork importation amid swine fever scare

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri. INQUIRER.net photo / CATHY MIRANDA

MANILA, Philippines — Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri raised on Wednesday the possibility of suspending the importation of pork as the threat of spreading the African Swine Fever (ASF) remains high.

Zubiri made the proposal after Chester Warren Tan, head of the National Federation of Hog Famers, told the Senate committee on agriculture and food that there was an oversupply of imported pork last year.

Tan said the demand was only 1.7 billion kilos of pork and the supply was 1.6 billion kilos or just 100 million short.

“Instead of importing just 100 million kilos para tamang-tama lang dito sa gagamitin natin sa Pilipinas, from 100 million, we imported 440 million so meron tayong sobrang 300 million kilos,” he told the committee.

“In effect, me sobra tayong 60 to 70 days buffer which is happening from Mindanao, Central Visayas and here in Luzon.”

Zubiri, who was presiding over the hearing on the ASF issue, then expressed fear the ASF might slip into the country through pork importation.

“Baka delikado tayo, so kelangan siguro pag-usapan natin na itigil muna yung importation ng pork. Let’s buy Filipino first so that’s what we should be doing…” he said.

In an interview after the hearing, Zubiri also proposed to ban imported pork not only from areas with ASF cases but even from their neighboring countries.

“For example Europe, di ba may ban na po tayo sa  Belgium? But a lot of our imports come from Germany and Spain. I think number one is Germany, second  is Spain eh malapit lang sa Belgium yun,” he said.

“We should put a ban on countries where there are ASF, but also on the neigboring counties that have ASF,” the senator added.

Zubiri said the expanded ban would not result in the shortage of pork, citing hog raisers’ assurance that the country is 95-percent self-sufficienct on swine. /jpv

READ: Piñol orders ban on pork from Japan due to swine fever reports