Philippines: producers want Asia pork bans

The hog sector want the bans from China, Vietnam, and Cambodia in order to prevent the spread of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS).

The government is being urged ion by the National Federation of Hog Farmers (NFHFI) to impose a ban on importing pork from the three countries.

According to reports, the Philippines does not currently import pork from China due to  its own pork shortage, a ban will be a stricter prohibition to the entry of pork should a softening of price occur in China's domestic market.

"If we have a ban that will be a deterrent even to smuggling. At present if they want to export to us, we don't have a policy banning the import," NFHFI vice chairman Renato R. Eleria said.

Serious health risk
"Allowing the entry of pork imports from these countries would further expose the local hog industry to this strain of virus and pose a serious health to our people," stated the NFHFI in a letter to Department of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap.

"It will be very devastating once we have the disease again since we don't have a vaccine yet. That will surely make the price of pork go up again. We should have a specific vaccine (or cure) for the specific sub-type infecting us, not a general type of vaccine," said JSR Hog Farms Association president Alex M. Reyes.

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