The Department of Agriculture (DA) and the country’s hog farmers yesterday asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency under the Department of Health, to stop issuing import clearances and order the immediate market pull out for processed pork products from countries affected by the African Swine Fever.
The DA, in a memorandum issued last year, asked the FDA to implement a ban and stop the entry of processed pork products including canned goods like “Maling” from China and 13 other countries after August 2018.
An incident involving a returning Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) who was intercepted while bringing in cans of “Maling” pork luncheon meat brought to the attention of the DA that while a ban and cut off date for the entry of processed pork products from China was issued last year, the FDA continued issuing permits to allow importers to bring in the banned products.
In an emergency meeting attended by officials of the Bureau of Customs at the DA Secretary’s office yesterday, the hog raisers also asked President Rody Duterte to immediately order the creation of an Inter-Agency Task Force to handle the ASF threat to the country’s P200-B hog industry.
Earlier, the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF) recommended the declaration of a State of Emergency to protect the country’s hog industry.
The ASF is a deadly disease of hogs which has no vaccination and no known cure. Although it is not contagious to humans, the disease could wipe out the hog population of a country.
China and Vietnam, two of the countries worst hit by ASF, have already eliminated millions of hogs infected by the disease with China losing about 30% of its swine population.
During the meeting yesterday, the DA, Bureau of Customs and Hog Raisers also agreed to:
1. Request for an emergency meeting with the new Director General of the FDA, Dr. Eric Domingo to address the seeming lack of coordination and synchronisation of government efforts to address the ASF problem.
2. Ask FDA to request the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to implement an immediate recall from the market of all processed and canned pork since these are among the items included in the ban issued by the DA in August of 2018;
3. Direct the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) to monitor and inspect Animal Feed Stores in the country to check the presence of dog and cat food using hog-based meat and bone meal processed from ASF-affected countries;
4. Engage private sector support in the deployment of additional “Deputized Quarantine Officers” to man the airports and ports to ensure that pork and pork products do not enter the country;
5. Immediate deployment of the trained K9 sniffers in the major ports and airports of entry in the country.
6. Appeal to importers and traders to voluntarily refrain from importing pork and processed pork from ASF affected and high risk countries.
DA Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan and the hog industry stakeholders will meet with the new FDA Director General Dr. Domingo today to thresh out issues involving the continued entry of processed pork products, commodities which are under the jurisdiction of the FDA.
At 2 p.m. today, the DA Secretary will meet with the country’s major meat importers to ask them to start a self-imposed moratorium on the importation of pork and processed pork from ASF High Risk Countries.
(Photos of the meeting with Hog Industry stakeholders yesterday were taken by the DA AFID.)
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