THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it will issue new zoning rules for areas affected by outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) by January.
“Our direction is that we will change our coding system. Previously it was color codes,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. told reporters, referring to the color designations for areas deemed hot zones for the disease.
The current system designates as red zones areas with confirmed ASF cases. Pink zones are near infected areas or are ASF-free areas in infected provinces. Yellow zones are deemed high-risk areas; light green zones have no cases but are near yellow zones, and dark green zones are ASF free.
Mr. Laurel said that the new mapping system will only indicate whether areas have active cases of ASF or not.
“That it will be easier, because now there is a stigma. Farmers have not been reporting disease because they do not want to be categorized as being in red zones,” he added.
He added that the policy is also expected to facilitate the transport of uninfected hogs to and from ASF-affected areas.
He said that the restricted movement of hogs within ASF-hit areas has created imbalances in the supply of pork.
“That will basically stabilize the market for pork. This should lower the average price of pork because there is an influx of (supply),” Mr. Laurel added.
According to the DA price monitors as of Dec. 19, a kilogram of pork shoulder cost P300 to P380 per kilo in public markets, with pork belly fetching P340 to P410.
ASF was first detected in the Philippines in 2019.
As of Dec. 6, 88 municipalities across 19 provinces had active ASF cases, according to the Bureau of Animal Industry. — Adrian H. Halili