Philippines to temporarily halt pork imports from Spain

Request for regionalization, not country-wide ban

For Meat Importers and Traders Association (Mita) President Emeritus Jesus Cham, this does not bode well for the Philippines, even if ASF has been around Europe for a while.

“All this time, we had requested the DA to adopt the WOAH guidelines on regionalization in order to provide for such contingency,” said Mr Cham. “We hope the DA will only ban the affected areas or zones and not the entire country.”

The Philippines imposes a temporary ban on pork shipments from a nation with a confirmed case of ASF to prevent the entry of the transboundary disease that could further jeopardize the country’s domestic hog sector, still reeling from the lingering effects of the swine disease following its detection in 2019.

The DA recently updated its guidelines on implementing bilateral regionalization with accredited countries, allowing trade partners to maintain exports of hogs and pork products to the Philippines despite confirmed cases of ASF.

Under this agreement, the Philippines will restrict shipments of hogs and their products only from certain areas with confirmed ASF cases instead of imposing a country-wide ban.

Such a move was aimed at cushioning the impact of import bans on the country’s trade and food security, while safeguarding the domestic swine industry.

Currently, no DA-accredited country has secured bilateral regionalization for ASF-free areas yet.

Data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showed that Spain was the country’s second leading supplier of pork at 131,065 tons as of end-September, trailing behind Brazil at 236,632 tons.