Secretary Alcala on Swine Industry

[gateway]

Last August 19, Quezon Day, I attended mass at Perez Park and Secretary Alcala had a speech after the mass. One of his speech is about the exportation the Philippine Meat to other countries and I do not know if this is already started, I do not know if this is true, because right now we are suffering from very low prices. If this is true what is the negative and positive implication to us as Philippine meat provider, especially the backyard raisers.

[mikey]

if you look at the process that was in place for the export of pork from Mindanao to Singapore.The farms that were to supply the hogs were for the most part,selected commercial farms that passed all the necessary safety and health laws needed for export production.Nothing was coming from the backyard,for the most part, backyards raisers supply the local markets in the country.

[gateway]

that means sir, this exportation does NOT give positive output to the backyard raisers, only the commercial farms can gain this. I thought they (officials) did this, to help the raisers especially the small, the backyard raisers. Backyard raisers now are suffering from high feeds cost and low price production. In visayas now, its already 86-88 per kilo while the feeds are still on the high price (sad)....

[mikey]

it becomes a question of  logistics.Think about it for one moment.How can the Govt. and all those connected with exports go to every single backyard raiser and test their hogs for all the neccessary health and safety corcerns and laws that the importing country is asking the exporting country to comply with.It is much easier to have the hogs coming from a number of selected commercial farms that have tested and passed all the requirements that is needed to be in place before the pork can be exported.

The backyard raiser has and will supply the domestic local markets of the country.It becomes a question of logistics,easier to manage a few farms rather than many spread over a large area.The backyard raiser plays an important role in feeding the country with its pork needs.

I understand all too well the high cost of feeds in the Visayas as our farm is located in Negros Oriental and the prices for our product is dropping while our production cost keeps rising.

[nemo]

that means sir, this exportation does NOT give positive output to the backyard raisers, only the commercial farms can gain this. I thought they (officials) did this, to help the raisers especially the small, the backyard raisers. Backyard raisers now are suffering from high feeds cost and low price production. In visayas now, its already 86-88 per kilo while the feeds are still on the high price (sad)....

How could this project help the backyard raiser....  IF the commercial farm will export their product then there will be less supply in the local market that would push the price at the farm gate to be higher.