The Negros Occidental Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) noted a decrease in veterinary fees and sales in 2020, its head, Dr. Renante Decena, said today, January 11.
The pandemic has contributed to the decline in the revenue collection of the PVO from various animal health services, that dropped to half of the P7 million that was earned in 2019, he said.
There is also a significant decline in the sales of gamefowl in the province, he said, as only 88,360 heads were shipped out in 2020, compared to the 343,621 heads in 2019.
“The decrease was attributed to the prohibition of cockfighting activities throughout the country during the implementation of community quarantine and the cancellation of several gamefowl expos that are usually scheduled annually. The limited number of flights to and from the province also contributed to this decrease,” Decena said.
Despite this, he expressed optimism that PVO will sustain its effort in keeping Negros Occidental free from the dreaded African swine fever (ASF) virus, and adopt pro-active animal health biosecurity measures among its livestock and poultry stakeholders in coping with the economic downside due to the pandemic.
Decena said that hog shipment recorded an increase by 46.18 percent last year with a total of 28,214 heads shipped out compared to 15,185 heads in 2019.
“The devastating effect of ASF outbreaks in Luzon resulted to a huge storage of pork supply in the province and increasing the price to almost double, from P220 per kilo to P400 per kilo,” he said.
This opened new market opportunities for the local swine raisers to supply slaughter hogs to Luzon and earn more because of the higher prices offered by traders from Luzon with a standing memorandum of agreement to effect continuous trade, he added.
Meanwhile, the consolidated apprehension report from January to December 2020 showed that a total of 32.65 tons of assorted pork products have been apprehended in ports, airports, and checkpoints in the province.*