WASHINGTON, D.C. —The United States Grains Council (USGC) has encouraged the Philippines to be always transparent in disclosing information about its African swine fever (ASF) outbreaks in order to keep the confidence of its trade partners, particularly American grain exporters.
Data gaps—especially between the declared number of affected hogs and the demand for feeds—are bound to show up, it added, citing the case of China. It did not elaborate on whether it had basis to suspect anything amiss in Philippine government actions thus far.
USGC Senior Director of Global Programs Cary Sifferath said holding back information about the ASF, as China is suspected to have done, could cost the exporters’ trust in the Philippine government.
Being transparent on government efforts in eradicating the ASF would ensure predictability in trade between the Philippines and its trade partners, Sifferath pointed out.
“It would help [that the Philippines] is transparent [with its ASF outbreaks]. The [Chinese] government is trying to keep [its ASF outbreaks] a secret, [announcing] that it is only [present] in this area,” he told Filipino reporters at USGC’s headquarters here on Monday.
“The more transparent [the Philippine government] can be, the better [for trade and business],” he added.
‘No comment’—D.A.
In Manila, the Department of Agriculture (DA) refused to comment on the USGC statement.
In a phone interview on Tuesday, DA Spokesman Noel Reyes told the BusinessMirror that Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar was not likely to comment on the statement.
“No comment. That’s how we handle ASF,” Reyes said. “I think he will not dignify that. Why the need? What for?”
This newspaper tried to contact Secretary Dar but he could not be reached as of press time. Reyes explained that they were already onboard a plane to Butuan City.
Vietnam’s example
Meanwhile, USGC’s Sifferath held up as good practice Vietnam’s promptness in reporting to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) updates on its ASF outbreaks.
To date, Vietnam has culled over 4.7 million hogs, while China has culled about 1.17 million pigs since the Asian countries were struck by ASF, according to the latest monitoring report of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Foreign analysts and local industry players believe that China is withholding information and figures about the extent of the damage by ASF to its domestic hog industry.
Dutch bank Rabobank forecasts that China would lose 50 percent of its pig herd, which it estimated to be at 360 million heads, by year-end due to ASF.
Sifferath said if a country opts to withhold details about its ASF outbreaks, the situation on the ground, such as pork and feed price movements, would eventually show a clearer picture of the impact of the disease.
“You can keep it a secret but pork prices will start going up if there’s no live hogs that would actually meet the demand. Feed production will go down and feed companies will start to notice it,” he said.
“So, those things are going to show up whether you hide it or not. From what I’ve seen in China and Vietnam, it’s a 90 percent to 95 percent death loss, so, I do not know how you could hide dying pigs,” he added.
Sifferath revealed that some of their business partners in the Philippines have been telling them that ASF reached the country as early as March.
“When I was in the Philippines in March, people were already telling me that they thought the Philippines had already the ASF,” he said.
“And then now I saw that 70 percent of the samples sent to the United Kingdom tested positive, which means [ASF] did not just pop up in the last two weeks. It’s been there for a while,” he added.
$20-billion sales
The pork industry is an important economic sector for the US. The US-based National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) noted that more than 60,000 American pork producers earn a total annual gross income of more than $20 billion from the sale of 115 million hogs.
The NPPC noted that the US pork industry supports about 550,000 jobs. These jobs range from pork producers and meat processors to transport and Main Street businesses.
US exports of pork and pork-related products amount to over 2.2 million metric tons annually. The US is considered the world’s third -largest producer and consumer of pork.
The USGC develops export markets for US barley, corn, sorghum and related products, such as distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and ethanol.
Sifferath said the USGC exports corn, sorghum and DDGS to the Philippines for animal feed purposes.
USGC data showed that the US exported 192,000 metric tons of corn, 1,200 MT of sorghum and 170,000 MT of co-products, including DDGS, to the Philippines in market year 2017 to 2018.
Sifferath said it is probable that there could be a slowdown in the Philippines’s importation of DDGS, a by-product of ethanol production, due to ASF outbreaks.
The US also imports a number of products from the Philippines, including food items. Last year, the US imported $12.6 billion worth of Philippine goods, 8.4 percent higher the figure recorded in 2017.
The top import categories last year were electrical machinery, animal or vegetable fats and oils, knit apparel, and optical and medical instruments.
The ASF outbreaks in the Philippines started on July 25, nearly a month before the government formally announced that a “mystery” disease is killing hogs, according to Manila’s notification to the OIE.
Based on its notification, 536 hogs died due to ASF, while the government culled 7,416 heads to control the spread of the highly contagious hog disease. In the notification, which was submitted last September 9, the Philippines said it received on August 30, the results of the confirmatory tests which confirmed that ASF killed hogs in seven areas.
Testing of pig blood samples done by the Animal Disease Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory in the Philippines on August 16 revealed that ASF was responsible for the deaths of the animals.
Manila then tapped The Pirbright Institute, an OIE reference laboratory, for confirmatory tests. The institute found that 14 out of the 20 blood samples were positive for ASF.
The Philippine government said in its notification that the event is “continuing” and committed to submit weekly follow-up reports to the OIE.
With a report by Cai U. Ordinario in Manila
Image credits: Marikina Mayor’s office