ENOUGH SUPPLY. Personnel of the Antique Provincial Veterinary (ProVet) inspects hogs for transport to Iloilo City at the border checkpoint in Hamtic, Antique on Feb. 7, 2024. Luela Furio, ProVet Senior Agriculturist, said in an interview Tuesday (March 5) that the province has enough supply of swine to meet the local pork consumption. (Photo courtesy of Antique ProVet)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – Antique has enough swine to meet the demand for pork in the province, according to the Antique Provincial Veterinary (ProVet) on Tuesday.
ProVet Senior Agriculturist Luela Furio said that the inventory during the last quarter of 2023 showed the swine population in Antique at 46,022 heads.
Traders shipped around 3,599 heads outside the province during the first two months of 2024. The 42,423 hogs left in Antique are enough to supply the local pork consumption.
“Our four border checkpoints in the municipalities of Hamtic and Anini-y in the south and Libertad and Pandan in the north of Antique are monitoring daily the hogs being shipped out of the province,” Furio said in an interview.
Meantime, the island Municipality of Caluya is applying for Recognition on Active Surveillance (RAS) on African swine fever (ASF), a requirement to transport live weight outside of the municipality and augment the stocks at the province’s capital town, where there is a shortage in supply.
The swine population in the island as of the last quarter of 2023 was at 3, 162 heads.
“The issuance of RAS is necessary to show that the live weight from Caluya is ASF-free,” she said.
Meat vendors from the San Jose de Buenavista could hardly find live weight to be sold at the Dalipe Tradetown since traders have local scouts or errands in the barangays to look for available hogs.
Pork at the tradetown is sold at PHP400 a kilo while the buying price of live weight is now at PHP235-PHP240 from PHP205 the last month. (PNA)
