By Rjay Zuriaga Castor
The swine sufficiency level in the province of Iloilo has settled at 30-35 percent since last year, leading it to heavily rely on swine products shipped in from nearby provinces.
As of April 15, the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) reported that Iloilo has only around 79,570 pork heads from the 277,421 heads recorded in September 2022, prior to recording its first ASF case in Oton.
This decline represents a 71 percent decrease in inventory, totaling 197,851 fewer heads.
With such a significant decline, the province has leaned heavily on frozen and processed swine products shipped in from nearby regions.
From January to March this year, the province received a total of 686,767 kilograms (kg) of pork products (213,476 kg in January; 101,250.60 kg in February; and 372,040.85 kg in March).
These shipments have brought the province’s sufficiency level to 70 percent.
Data from the PVO indicates that Oriental Mindoro is the province from which Iloilo has received the largest number of swine heads since 2023, delivering around 23,700 heads. This is followed by Palawan with 5,620 heads, Bohol with 2,672, Negros Occidental with 503, and Romblon with 120.
Since March 2023, the province has temporarily halted the export of hogs to other provinces.
The Department of Agriculture Bureau of Animal Industry has recently upgraded 10 towns in the province from a red zone to a pink zone status for ASF.
These towns include Banate, Batad, Barotac Viejo, Concepcion, Dingle, Mina, New Lucena, Oton, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara.
As of April 15 this year, 18 towns in the province remain under the red zone category, 28 towns remain ASF affected, and 15 have no reported ASF case.
According to the PVO, the province recorded its last ASF case on October 7, 2023 in San Joaquin.
