Antique mayors urged to prioritize upgrading slaughterhouses

SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – Town mayors in the province of Antique are urged to prioritize the upgrading of their slaughterhouses to qualify for a Double A or AA classification and earn accreditation from the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) and expand their market.

In an interview Thursday, Provincial Board committee on agriculture vice chairperson Karmila Dimamay said hog raisers in the province could not sell pork outside of Antique because Antique has no AA slaughterhouse.

"Our hog-raisers could only sell live weight hog in other parts of the country like Luzon because there is no Double A slaughterhouse in the province," she said.

Antique Provincial Veterinary (ProVet) office public health division head Dr. Rafael Marco Ardamil, in a separate interview Thursday, said slaughterhouses in the province are not registered with NMIS and only those with AA accreditation slaughterhouses could sell pork and other meat products nationwide.

NMIS is the national government regulatory agency that implements policies on meat inspection and meat hygiene to ensure safety.

Local government units, to avail of the desired accreditation, have to provide funding to put up conveyors and other needed equipment to make sure that the slaughtered hog is clean and safe for human consumption, he added.

Meantime, Dimamay said that hog-raisers in the province are forced to sell their live weight hog for a price of P120 per kilogram as offered by traders or their middlemen who transport them to Luzon and in other parts of the country.

She said that they tackled the low price of live hogs during their Sept. 22 consultative meeting with hog raisers.

They urged for the Provincial Price Coordinating Council chaired by Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao to convene so that traders and hog raisers could set the buying price.

"I am agreeable that there should be a uniform price for the live weight hog," she said.

Antique Vice Governor Edgar Denosta said that he intends to sponsor a resolution during their regular session on Oct. 20 to urge the price council to convene.

"The local government units have the power to monitor the price of the live weight hog if there is abuse by the traders," he said in a separate interview on Thursday.

He added that it was important that traders or their middlemen and hog raisers could come up with a profitable price. (PNA)