Dearth of pork supply jacks up prices in Cotabato
KIDAPAWAN CITY—The devastation brought about by the African swine fever (ASF) last year is now being felt at the mega market here in this city as meat vendors complained of a dearth of supply of pork meat, jacking up prices.
Narcisa Carbon, president of the Kidapawan Market Vendors’ Association, said the selling price of pork had gone up to as much as P300 per kilogram, up from the P250-per-kilo prevailing market price months before.
According to Carbon, vendors had been having a hard time sourcing pork meat from suppliers as most hog raisers in the province devastated by the ASF last year were still to recover their losses and had refused to raise hogs.
“Meat vendors at the mega market here are complaining of shortages of pork meat as hog raisers in the province of Cotabato have stopped raising pigs after these were stricken by ASF last year,” Carbon said.
She added they were having a hard time sourcing live hogs from their suppliers in the towns of M’lang, Makilala, Tulunan in Cotabato province and even from as far as Bukidnon.
Carbon said the current farm-gate prices of live hogs ranged from P210 to P230 per kilo, which caused pork prices to go up to P300 per kilo.
However, the price of pork meat in Kidapawan was, so far, cheaper than those in the towns of M’lang and Makilala, which reached as much as P340 per kilo.
“Though we are at the losing end, we still sell it at a cheaper price because our regular customers depend on us,” Carbon said.
Sow meat
But due to the scarcity of young pigs, the pork being sold at the city’s mega market since last week consisted of sow meat, leaving it up to consumers to decide if they would want to purchase them, Carbon said.
On Monday, only some four stalls were selling sow meat at the mega market while the rest of the 16 meat stalls had shifted to selling beef and goat’s meats.
John Ryan Alvarez, another pork meat vendor, urged the city government to also extend to the meat vendors the buy back program for hogs granted to hog raisers, through the P3.7-million rolling capital provided by Mayor Jose Paolo Evangelista.
“The hogs buy back program is a preemptive measure to protect hog raisers from losses, it will be much appreciated if a similar program will also be shared among meat vendors in mega markets,” he said.
Through the program, the city government has been buying healthy hogs from farmers and selling them through the city’s Kadiwa market on weekends and during barangay fiestas.
Evangelista earlier said the income generated from the program would be used to assist hog farmers affected by ASF.
Kidapawan City was among the areas in Cotabato province badly hit by the ASF, resulting in the culling of thousands of pigs in June last year.
