DA suspends ban on meat shipments to south

The Department of Agriculture, through the Bureau of Animal Industry, suspended recently the implementation of Administrative Order No. 5, which restricts the shipment of live animals and meat products from Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease in these otherwise FMD-free areas.

The suspension was made in view of representations by the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc., through its executive director Francisco Buencamino Jr., to BAI that such restriction has resulted in a severe lack of meat supplies in the South.

The BAI issued AO 5, prohibiting the transshipment of live hoofed animals and meat products (like tocino, tapa and others) from Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao, which might be contaminated by FMD viruses prevalent in many parts in Luzon.

Buencamino announced during the 2nd Livestock Forum of the Philippine Agricultural Journalists (PAJ) hosted by Tryco Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Xylena Farms that many consumers in the South have complained of being unable to buy their favorite processed meat products because of the prohibition.

He said not only consumers are affected by this ban on transshipment but also food chains like Jollibee and McDonalds, whose patties and other meat products from Luzon can not be brought to franchises and outlets in the South thereby severely affecting their business operations.

It will be recalled that Mindanao, the Visayas, Palawan and Masbate have been recently certified FMD-free by the Paris based Office International de Epizootie of the World Health Organization. As such, live animals and meat products from these zones can now be shipped anywhere in the country and even in the world after being certified for their soundness and safety.

Buencamino also challenged Tryco Pharmaceuticals president Wilfredo Rivera Sr. to come up with a vaccine that will help speed up the accreditation of the Philippines by OIE as FMD-free for the whole country rather than by zones, as it is now recognized.

Tryco, which has a laboratory and pharmaceutical plant in San Rafael, Bulacan, is now the only company that can produce animal vaccines locally.

Buencamino said the FMD situation in Luzon now is that 87 cases have already been reported as of end April which is why the Philippines can not be cerfified as FMD free as a nation.

At the same time, Buencamino said PAMPI would like the government to also give full attention to local meat processors — who provide jobs and pay taxes directly to the government through their sales of meat products locally — as BAI and DA have been giving to local food producers, specifically hog raisers.

"What is going on now is that government is babying the hog industry while giving the meat processors only a step-child attention," Buencamino said.

He said that of the 14 or more administrative orders, special orders and memorandum orders issued by DA, easily most of these are being issued solely to protect the interests of local livestock producers, whose operations can not even meet the food requirements of Filipinos.

Also, a pending twin bill in Congress (filed by the Villar couple in both chambers) limiting the source of meat that processors can import to FMD-free countries "will disallow the meat processors from getting cheap but quality carabeef for processing in India only to FMD certified sources," Buencamino said.