City Vet assures enough supply of pork this holiday
City Veterinarian Dr. Charlemagne Calo assures that there will be enough supply of pork in Koronadal this holiday season.
He assured the public that although Luzon’s merchants were getting their supply of pork in Mindanao, there is nothing to worry about because the city still had an adequate supply of the said meat. Calo’s statement is based on the presence of several “Talipaspas” in the city that sell the same product and the proper supply of pork by two large South Cotabato-based companies.
However, due to the high demand for pork this last quarter of 2020, its price is also expected to increase further aside from the fact that its supply is low due to the African Swine Fever (ASF) issue where many of the hog and backyard raisers are affected and lost the desire to continue the said livelihood.
Since there has not been a single case of ASF in the city since testing positive last February,the veterinarian said it calls for a celebration considering that the virus was just around the corner.
To maintain the ASF free status in the city, their office conducts strict checkpoint monitoring on all meat vans entering Koronadal. In addition, online distributors selling processed foods are also closely monitored, though Calo admitted that it is very challenging on their part to do the monitoring.
Meanwhile, as part of their online monitoring is to purchase the products posted online and in case it came from areas affected by ASF they immediately conduct an entrapment operation against online sellers.
Among the processed foods banned in the city are pork chorizo, tapa, “longganiza”, ham and chicharron from Cotabato Province and Davao Region.
Calo said, to ensure that the pork bought is safe from ASF, he appealed to the consumers to make it a habit to look at its labels or just support the locally produced meat products. He also emphasized that cooperation with each other is key to a successful fight against ASF.