Davao meat vendors, processors seek help amid sales drop due to ASF cases
PORK vendors and meat processors in Davao City are feeling the impact of the African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak as sales have dropped by up to 50% since the confirmed cases were reported early this month.
Vendors and processors, particularly those with shops in the city’s public markets, have appealed to the Department of Agriculture-Davao (DA-11) regional office as well as financial institutions to help them cope with the situation.
“As of now mahina talaga ang aming sales at walang tao ang meat section ng market dahil walang bumibili… Ang laki na talaga ng lugi namin (sales is really weak, there are no people at the meat section because there are no buyers… Our loss has really been significant,” Eden Guira, a fastfood chain meat supplier and retailer, said during Monday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw forum.
She said the decrease in overall sales is about 50% even as some retailers have been offering discounts.
“I don’t know where some of the vendors have been getting their resources,” she said in Filipino.
Ms. Guira said they are hoping that assistance can be extended to them as well as their workers.
The DA’s ASF assistance program covers compensation for hog farmers affected by the virus.
Ms. Guira added that the lockdown imposed by other local governments have affected their local export volume.
Teodora Guira, also a processor, said their clients in Malungon, General Santos City, Mati City, Surigao, and Butuan received a memorandum from their respective local governments directing them to refrain them from selling chorizo, embutido, tocino, and lumpiang shanghai from Davao City.
She said the memorandum is a blanket order that affects even processors like her who source meat from areas in the city that are not ASF-infected.
The group is hoping that DA-11 and the City Veterinarian’s Office will soon declare Davao City as ASF-free.
The first ASF outbreak in Mindanao was confirmed in late January in Don Marcelino, Davao Occidental. Other cases were later reported in parts of Davao del Sur and Davao City. — Maya M. Padillo
