Paul Anderson – General Manager South East Asia
Philippines
Pork Producers Weekly Prices as of April 10, 2019
(NET Price/PHP per KG Liveweight)
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The Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines is active in promoting that theirs no need to cut back on eating locally-produced pork despite an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in neighbouring countries, Pork in the Philippines is safe to eat and there is enough pork in the Philippines.
The average farmgate price of hogs upgraded for slaughter 1t Php 115.58 per kilogram, liveweight was 8.29 % higher compared with its previous year’s price of Php106.73 per kilogram , liveweight.
Changes in Farmgate Prices of Hogs Upgraded for Slaughter
Philippines: 2016-2018
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As of 1 January 2019, the total swine population in the country at 12.71 million heads was .83 percent higher compared with its previous year’s inventory of 12.60 million heads
Stocks in the backyard and commercial farms registered an increase of .93 percent and .66 percent respectively.
Changes in the swine inventory by farm type
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Forecast for the year 2019 indicate that hog production may likely increase by 3.2% compared in 2018. The trend for farm gate prices continue to go down from July 2018 to second quarter this year. Big volume of imported pork affect the farm gate prices. Inventory of imported pork in the cold storage was 39.9 million kilos as of March 31, 2019 Cost of production as of March 31, 2019 ranges from P95-P106/kl. The threat of African Swine Fever might add to the slow improvement of the farm gate.
Thailand
Thailand beefs up ASF preventive measures. Thailand set aside USD 5 million to beef up measures to prevent African Swine Fever, which has been spreading closer to neighbouring Cambodia.
The budget will be spent from now over to the next three years for a short-term prevention plan and the long-term one. For the short-term, the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) will be increasing surveillances along the borders, setting up disinfection points for vehicles and building up incinerators to destroy infected pigs.
In the long-run, the department will work with pig producers across the country to upgrade ASF prevention measures to be in line with international standards being practiced in Europe or North America.
The department categories Thailand’s pig farmers in two groups consisting of small-scale and large-scale ones. There are a total of 208,192 small-scale pig farms in the country. These farmers keep 63,000 sows, 733,000 piglets (at farrowing) and 80,000 grower/finisher pigs.
Meanwhile, there are only 2758 large-scale pig farmers in Thailand, but they own 1.137 million sows in combine. These farmers have 4.670 million piglets (at farrowing) and 8.8 million grower/finisher pigs.
The value of these pigs is estimated at USD 2.276 billion. Therefore, if the ASF outbreak were to occur in Thailand, it would lead to a huge loss to the industry. But if the country is free to the disease, the value of the entire pig industry in Thailand would also be increased a great deal due to rising pig prices.
The department forecast that an opportunity from increasing exports of live pig and pork products to ASF-hit country in Asia would lift the price of live pigs in Thailand to USD2.5/kg, up from the current price of about USD 1.8/kg.