THE National Tobacco Administration (NTA) has joined government efforts to stabilize pork prices by augmenting the operating capital of its meat processing facility in Ilocos Sur by P10 million, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The DA said the additional fund for the processing facility was approved by the NTA board in its January 19 meeting.
With the additional fund, the NTA will buy live hogs from African swine fever (ASF)-free areas in Ilocos Sur and Abra and slaughter and process them at the Narvacan meat processing facility, the DA said.
Pork and pork products from the Narvacan facility would be delivered to Metro Manila at an average of 5,000 kilograms per day. “We will strongly assist the DA to provide consumers in Metro Manila reasonably-priced pork meat and processed pork products,” NTA administrator Robert Victor G. Seares Jr. said on Thursday.
The DA said the NTA meat processing facility will initially slaughter 520 hogs, equivalent to 52,000 kg starting the second week of February.
The NTA meat processing facility in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, has a double A or “AA” accreditation from the DA’s National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS). It can slaughter up to 80 hogs, equivalent to 6,000 kg, per day.
“This is a result of our recent visit in Narvacan, where we witnessed the operation of DA-NTA meat processing facility,” Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said
“We thank the Governing Board of the DA-NTA, during its January 19 meeting, for its swift action on our request, as we are pressed to increase the supply of pork and temper its rocketing price in Metro Manila,” Dar, who concurrently chairs the DA-NTA board, added.
Livestock insurance
In a related development, the DA urged backyard and commercial hog raisers to access insurance packages from government-owned Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) to help recover their investments should they be affected by ASF.
Dar said availing of insurance for their hogs is a “prudent safety net” for Filipino raisers, especially for those in ASF-free areas that aim to continue pork production.
“As the DA intensifies efforts to encourage hog raisers to get back to business and, ultimately, help pork production rebound, availing of an insurance coverage is a prudent safety net for existing raisers and for those in ASF-free areas who will venture into this business,” he said in a statement.
The PCIC, an attached government-owned and -controlled corp. to the DA, started including ASF among the risks covered by its livestock insurance program in 2019, when the fatal hog disease broke out locally.
The PCIC provides P10,000 insurance cover per head of swine, on a premium payment of only 2.25 percent or P225, according to the DA. However, small backyard hog raisers are given free insurance if they are listed in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA), according to the DA.
The insurance coverage is different from the ASF indemnification claims, where beneficiaries are eligible for a P5,000 assistance per pig culled, the DA said.
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