Davao hog raisers face crises

JOEL B. ESCOVILLA, Correspondent, BusinessWorld
04/22/2008 | 04:51 AM

DAVAO CITY, Philippines - About 30% of backyard hog raisers in this city have folded up and a lot more are expected to follow due to rising cost of operation.

Davao Hog Raisers Association chairman, Teresita Pascual, said that losing more backyard hog raisers is alarming because they constitute 70% of the whole industry in the city.

She said other backyard raisers are holding on to their last stock, while some of them have sold off their remaining sows to send their children to nursing school. "They told us that it’s a better investment because their children will also earn P100,000 each month when they go abroad," she said.

Ms. Pascual said the backyard raisers could not cope with the expenses of renovating the pens, building sprinkling systems, and improving the ventilation to prevent heat stroke and diseases among the hogs caused by the intense heat. "It used to be that hog raisers allot one square meter per head; now, we have to double that," she said.

For those who plan to invest in commercial-scale hog farming, she said, P50 million would be an ideal investment for 500 sows at P100,000 per head, which could yield 80% return in three years time.

The situation has caused the farm-gate price of hogs to jump from P78 per kilogram last December to the present average of P90/kg.

Hog raisers, Ms. Pascual added, used to produce 10 piglets for each sow; but productivity dropped to six or seven piglets while the rearing period lengthened for each piglet. "Now traders don’t ask how much, they ask if there’s still stock left," she said.

Ms. Pascual also cited the price of feeds which tripled from five years ago, which she partly blamed on the government’s strategy to promote biofuel stock that, she argued, competed with the needs of her industry.

But William C. Barangan, provincial director of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics-XI, said the first quarter of the year is considered as seasonally lean months for corn in the country, adding the situation is expected to ease up by the end of the month.

He said the provinces of Bukidnon and Cotabato, the primary corn-producing areas in Mindanao, were also affected by incessant rains which pushed farm-gate prices up to over P13 from P10 last December.

Rising farm-gate prices of hogs provoked meat vendors in Bankerohan, the biggest public market here, to ask the city council to investigate the possibility of price manipulation. In a resolution submitted to the council last month, the Bankerohan Meat Vendors Association asked Councilor Edgar R. Ibuyan to look "into the drastic and continuing increase" of farm-gate price of hogs.

"The hog raisers may have a valid reason to raise farm-gate prices probably due to higher production cost," Mr. Ibuyan said. "But we want to ascertain that these farm-gate prices are reasonable and fair."

Current market stall price of pork in Bankerohan is now P145/kg, up from P120/kg in February.