Members of the Provincial Task Force on African Swine Fever confiscate pork products from Luzon that have still been seen during their inspection in grocery stores in Mandaue City and Cebu City on Thursday, October 10. | Photo courtesy of the Provincial Information Office
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Korean stores in Cebu will now be clearing their store shelves of pork products sourced from their country.
Members of the Cebu-Korean Association and Governor Gwendolyn Garcia agreed on this new policy following the confirmation of African Swine Fever cases in South Korea.
The South Korean community in Cebu met with Garcia on Thursday, October 10, to discuss the measures that the province had been taking to guard Cebu’s borders against ASF.
Cebu recently imposed a total ban on the entry of live hogs and all pork products from Luzon following confirmed ASF deaths in provinces there.
Read more: Cebu bans hogs from Luzon, processed pork products from Bulacan and Rizal
The provincial government has also formed a task force to monitor the entry and distribution of pork products in the Cebu markets.
Dr. Mary Rose Vincoy, Provincial Veterinarian and ASF Task Force head, said pork products manufactured in South Korea from January 2019 up to the present would have to be cleared.
“They have until tomorrow (October 11) to pull out the items. After that, we will begin with our monitoring, inspection, and confiscation if we will find that they still have them on their shelves,” Vincoy told CDN Digital in an interview.
Read more: ASF Task Force: Banned pork products from Luzon proliferate Cebu wet markets
Meanwhile, inspections made by the ASF Task Force in at least five grocery stores in the cities of Cebu and Mandaue today, October 10, still yielded banned pork products from Luzon.
Read more: ASF Task Force: P470K worth of pork, pork products burned
The confiscated items will be due for thermal destruction, said Vincoy.
With the passage of the ASF ordinance in Cebu province last September, Vincoy said they were awaiting the recommendation of the Provincial Legal Office on the legal actions that the province would be taking against these establishments./dbs