Emerging Supply Chain of Pork and the Opportunities for Small-Scale Raisers in Catbalogan City in the Philippines

Abstract

A griculturally-dependent provinces in Asia are among the poorest in the world. This is because the potential of the industry is not maximized. Many countries import agricultural products, including pork are sourced elsewhere and not produced locally. In the same way, the Philippines imports agricultural products like vegetables and livestock products, other products were imported from other provinces.The overall swine inventory in the Philippines was expected to be 9.49 million heads. Backyard swine inventories fell by 7.0 percent, while commercial swine inventories rose by 1.9 percent. 70.6 percent of the total pig population was raised on private farms, with the remaining 29.4 percent coming from commercial farms. Western Visayas reported the highest total swine population of 1.15 million heads, followed by Central Visayas with 1.14 million heads and CALA-BARZON with 1.02 million heads. These three regions accounted for 34.9 percent of the total swine inventory in the country (PSA, 2021) Catbalogan is the provincial capital of Samar in the Philippines, with 57 barangays. Its population reached 106,440 in 2020, of which 85-90% are pork eaters (PSA, 2020).Pig farming in the backyard is extremely limited. In basic housing, many backyard families rear only one or two hogs. The feed comes mostly from crop res-Abstract | The emerging supply chain of pork and its effects on small-scale raisers in Catbalogan City was examined using mixed methods. Supply and consumption were forecasted using Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models. Pork prices increased by 22-50% in 2021 compared to 2010 data. Liveweight pig prices also increased by 9-39% for the same year in review. It was noted that 27% of the supply was locally produced, and 73% were imported from other regions. Locally sourced pig supply is pegged at 53%, and the rest (47%) are imported from various towns in Samar and other regions. The demand for pork and live pigs is 27% and 55% higher than the supply. The said gap can be filled in by local farmers/raisers with an overall market opportunity of 70,996 kilograms monthly.

What can we learn from the five-year African swine fever epidemic in Asia?

“…The overall pig stock in the Philippines was estimated at 9.49–12.7 million heads ( 104 , 105 ). Of the total pig production, 70.6% are raised on private farms, while the remaining 29.4% belong to commercial farms.…”

“…There are large pig farms in some areas of the country, however, backyard pig farming still accounts for 65%–83% of the total in rural areas. The average number of pigs per backyard holding is extremely limited, with many backyard families keeping one or two pigs fed on crops ( 104 ). In Thailand, the majority of pig-farming households are small-scale farmers (93.51%), with 9.5 million pigs ( 106 ).…”