Paul Anderson, Genesus Southeast Asia
paul.anderson_genesussoutheastasia@outlook.com
Philippines
Dubbed as the longest Christmas-celebrating country, Filipinos take Christmas celebrations to the fullest. Shopping malls extend their operation hours up to midnight. Christmas carols start to play as early as the “BER” month starts, and last till January of the following year.
This 2023, the Pork consumption per capita is forecasted to be 15kg, with the major consumption taking place during the Christmas holiday. With this, local swine farmers usually await this season as this time increase in demand for pork; usually resulting in a better farm-gate price due to the law of supply and demand. Hence, due to the over-supply of imported frozen pork meat, the farm-gate price of locally produced hogs is still low, with the same price as the previous months.
New DA Chief
Last November 3, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed Mr. Francis Laurel as the new Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, before Sec. Laurel, Pres. Marcos had held the position of DA Secretary for more than a year. The President explained that he had held onto the position because he believed that the problems in the agency could only be solved by the President.
The new DA Secretary stated that his primary focus is to increase food production and modernize agriculture, a critical sector of the Philippine economy. Secretary Laurel emphasized the need to modernize agriculture to make it more profitable and attractive to younger generations. While rice production remains important, he recognizes other sectors like livestock, poultry, fisheries, and high-value crops that require government attention and support.
Newest ASF Case
A new province in the southernmost part of the Island of Luzon has detected its first ASF case.
Hence, the province’s local government is closely coordinating with the Department of Agriculture to stop the spread of the devastating African Swine Fever (ASF) virus.
As of Nov 7, 2023, there are already 395 municipalities that are upgraded from red (infected) to pink (buffer) zones, and 73 municipalities from pink to yellow (surveillance) zones.
Continued efforts are being made by the national and local hog groups, affiliates, and allies to protect our glooming local swine industry.
Thailand
Thailand’s pork smuggling curbed, but price remains low.
Thailand has started clamping down on frozen pork smuggling, but the action has yet to correct the pork price that remains lower than the production cost.
The Department of Special Investigation has found 2385 containers of frozen pork smuggled mainly from Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and Germany into Thailand during 2021-2023. This accounts as about 76,000 tones of pork.
The smuggling results in a deep plunge in live pig prices in Thailand to the level that is below the production cost. The price in December averages around THB 66/kg (USD 1.8), while the cost of production is higher to around THB 75/kg (USD 2).
The department is tracking smugglers and found a number of shipping brokers, government officers from livestock, customs and police departments, businesspeople and politicians involved in the smuggling. Most of them have been arrested, but the masterminds still remain at large.
So far, over 1685 containers of smuggled pork weight 42,000 tones have been distributed to cold storages across the country. The cold storages further distributed the products mainly loin, belly, liver and legs to wet markets, supermarkets and even hypermarkets all over Thailand.
The remainder of the smuggled pork containers is expected to be held or hidden at major seaports in different parts of the country.
So far, only 161 containers were confiscated and being disposed of in various landfill sites.
Despite the current financial climate in Thailand, 2 customers of Genesus continue to upgrade their genetics to have a competitive cost of production with imports in December and January already selected in Canada.
Vietnam
- The price of the pig now is 48,000 – 50,000 vnd/kg (91.15¢ USD liveweight lb. average) in the North; 47,000 – 50,000 vnd/kg (90.22¢ USD liveweight lb. average) in the center; and 47,000 – 52,000 vnd/kg (92.08¢ USD liveweight lb. average) in the South. Average will be around 48,600 vnd/kg. (90.41¢ USD liveweight lb.) More detail, please see the link: https://vietnambiz.vn/gia-heo-hoi-hom-nay-412-lang-song-tren-ca-nuoc-20231231763476.htm. The pig price continues to go down with the reason ASF around.
- Opposite the pig price go down, the Import-Export Department stated that the amount of pork imports has continuously increased over the months, but only accounts for about 2.1% of domestic pork production. Therefore, imported sources have not affected domestic pig prices in recent times (Source: https://vietnambiz.vn/nhap-khau-thit-heo-tang-thang-thu-6-lien-tiep-20231228155730.htm).
- Sáng kiến chung tìm thức ăn tương lai cho cá, gia cầm và lợn (source: http://cucchannuoi.gov.vn/tin-tuc-su-kien-tieu-bieu/sang-kien-chung-tim-thuc-an-tuong-lai-cho-ca-gia-cam-va-lon-287534).
- The amount of breeding pigs imported into Vietnam in 2022 is 6,527 female breeding pigs and 1,375 male breeding pigs; In the first 10 months of 2023, we imported 3,675 female pigs and 1,288 male pigs (source: http://cucchannuoi.gov.vn/tin-tuc-su-kien-tieu-bieu/tinh-hinh-xuat-nhap-khau-san-pham-chan-nuoi-10-thang-dau-nam-2023-287456).
- Pig farming: In 2018, the country had about 2.5 million pig farming establishments, sharply decreasing to 1.82 million establishments in 2019 (due to the impact of the ASF epidemic). In the period 2020-2022, small-scale livestock farms will decrease by 15-20%. Currently, pig production in smallholder farms has decreased to 35-40%; The output of pigs produced in farm-scale livestock facilities accounts for 60-65%. The structure of pork supply in 2022 shows that domestic enterprises account for only 19%, livestock households account for 38%, and FDI enterprises account for 43% (source: http://cucchannuoi.gov.vn/tin-tuc-su-kien-tieu-bieu/tinh-hinh-phat-trien-chan-nuoi-10-thang-dau-nam-2023-287411).
- The average live pig price in the first 4 months of 2023 ranges from 49,000 to 52,000 VND/kg; Price increased sharply from May to July (61,000 VND/kg) then decreased continuously; Prices decreased steadily in 3 regions and decreased the most in the last week of September and the first 3 weeks of October (setting a new bottom with the average price of 3 regions being 49,000 VND/kg – corresponding to the lowest month of the year). In the last week of October, prices started to increase by 1,000 – 3,000 VND/kg. The average live pig price in October 2023 reached 51,300 VND/kg, down about 5,200 VND/kg compared to the average price in September and down about 10,000 VND/kg compared to the average price in July (the highest price in the year). 2023, up to now) (Source: http://cucchannuoi.gov.vn/tin-tuc-su-kien-tieu-bieu/thi-truong-san-pham-chan-nuoi-10-thang-dau-nam-2023-287410).
- Dispatch No. 1097/CD-TTg dated November 16, 2023 of the Prime Minister on the drastic and synchronous implementation of solutions to prevent and control African Swine Fever (Source: https://cucthuy.gov.vn/web/guest/-/c%C3%B4ng-%C4%91i%E1%BB%87n-s%E1%BB%91-1097/c%C4%90-ttg-ng%C3%A0y-16/11/2023-c%E1%BB%A7a-th%E1%BB%A7-t%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Bng-ch%C3%ADnh-ph%E1%BB%A7-v%E1%BB%81-vi%E1%BB%87c-tri%E1%BB%83n-khai-quy%E1%BA%BFt-li%E1%BB%87t-%C4%91%E1%BB%93ng-b%E1%BB%99-c%C3%A1-gi?redirect=%2F).
