CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City is now banning pork and pork-related products from Eastern Visayas following reports of African Swine Fever (ASF) in the area.
Mayor Edgardo Labella has announced the ban on February 2, 2021, as the hog disease continues to affect more areas in the country except for Cebu island.
Labella said that to protect the hog industry from the ASF disease, the city government has disallowed the import of any pork products from areas with reported ASF cases.
Since Leyte has been placed under a red zone for ASF, automatically any pork product from the provinces of the region such as Leyte, Biliran, and Samar will not be allowed entry in the ports of Cebu City.
“I will issue another Executive Order which will disallow pork and pork products from Region 8 following the ASF cases in Leyte. I am calling all seaport officials, DVMF (Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries), and market operations to strictly impose regulations against the ASF,” said the mayor.
The ban will also include pork by-products such as sauces and oil processed and sourced from this area.
Aside from Region 8, the city has also banned pork and pork products from Luzon and ASF-hit areas in Mindanao. However, the green zones, or unaffected areas in Mindanao, may still import products to Cebu City.
DVMF Head, Doctor Jennifer Laurente, said that the ban is a precautionary move as the city does not generally source pork from any of the provinces in Eastern Visayas.
Currently, the city only sources pork from within Cebu Province and occasionally from Negros Oriental. The ban would not affect the supply of the city.
The supply is still low with the price of pork reaching P280 in the past week, but the DVMF has not declared a shortage on supply yet.
The Cebu Provincial Government, however, already prohibited the export of their pork products to ensure that there is enough supply on the island amid increasing demands.
Cebu City, which only has a handful of hog raisers, depend on the province for live hogs and pork meat. /rcg