Councilor warns vs. influx of hogs in Camiguin starting to affect backyard raisers

Councilor Liberato E. Babanto

MAHINOG, Camiguin – A town councilor here expressed alarm that if situation will remain that big time hog traders from mainland continue to supply and dominate the local market, the province’s swine industry will be affected and can eventually kill the livelihood of local backyard hog raisers in this island province of Camiguin.

In a privilege speech he delivered at the municipal council session this morning, Councilor Liberato E. Babanto proposed for a regulation on trading and entry of hogs in Camiguin.

He said local hog raisers can not compete with mainland hog traders due to the high cost of inputs prevailing in the island province.

He observed since the influx of stocks from mainland, backyard pig farmers have hard time to sell their pigs to local meat vendors who opted to buy stocks from mainland traders since they offer much lower price.

Present farm gate price of pig from local backyard raisers is P95 to P100 per kilo. But in order to compete with the mainland traders, local farmers are forced to drop prices way below production cost.

“This is a very big concern and government needs to do something to address the plight of small hog growers in the province," Babanto said.

“Before, it is easy to sell live pigs since there are many buyers even coming from nearby provinces and there were even times when supply of local hogs deeply declined,” he said.

“Today, local hog farmers now have difficulty to sell their products to the local butcher since they prefer mainland hogs due to lower price,” the councilor lamented.

But despite this, consumers have still wondered why meat prices in the local market have never gone down.

The issue was referred to the committee on agriculture to come up with possible recommendation to address the concerns of backyard hog raisers.