KOTA KINABALU: Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Chan Foong Hin had a dinner meeting with representatives from the Sabah Livestock Association yesterday night.
Representatives include Secretary Mr Patrick Shu from Eng Peng Cold Storage Sdn Bhd, Mr Alvin Lai, Mr Wong and others.
“I would like to extend my appreciation to them for attending the meeting despite such short notice”
“I acknowledged that majority Sabah pig farmers have been severely affected by the African Swine Flu (ASF) over the last two years. A lot of pig farms have no choice but shut down due to huge losses”
“Unfortunately, until today there is no vaccine to solve this epidemic. If any district or farm has pigs diagnosed with AFS, all pigs in the district would have to be killed and buried. This is a huge loss to farm owners.”
“Therefore, the only way to resolve the shortage of pork supply in Sabah is to allow pork to be imported. From what I understand, the Sabah Government has approved 200 tonnes of pork to be imported to Sabah and it will be arriving before the upcoming Chinese New Year festival.”
“These pork are not imported as whole pigs but frozen pork products. They are similar to imported packaged beef and lamb products in ordinary supermarkets.”
“I am also aware of the announcement made by Sandakan sellers that they will be raising the price for commercial whole pigs. I feel sorry about that and I hope that they could reconsider and remain the price at RM20 per kilogram as this was the price labelled during the recent Christmas holiday.”
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Security will also be meeting with the Minister of Domestic Trade and Living Costs YB Salahuddin Ayub next week to ensure that the pork price do not surge during the Chinese New Year festival.-pr/BNN
