Sun Star reports officials saying that 3.3 billion worth of livestock and assorted frozen meat products worth 3.3 billion pesos (PHP) were shipped from General Santos City to other parts of the country last year.

In his annual state of the city address, Mayor Pedro Acharon pointed out the city sent out PHP 1.4 billion worth of livestock and PHP 1.9 billion worth of assorted frozen meat products.

"Our [livestock] and meat products still hold a significant market share in the local and foreign trading," he said.

For live animals, there were 199,659 swine shipped out in 2008 with a value of PHP 1.1 billion; 6,765 head of cattle for PHP 175.9 million and 4,907 heads of carabaos for PHP 98.1 million, the city mayor said.

For frozen meat products, pork reached 13,000 tonnes with a value of PHP 1.4 billion; beef generated PHP 385.7 million with a volume of 962.6 tonnes, and poultry (chicken) products was valued at PHP 99.3 million at a volume of 1,100 tonnes, the mayor said.

The city has 37 piggeries, 46 poultry farms, two poultry dressing plants and one private abattoir.

Widely known as the 'Tuna Capital of the Philippines', General Santos City also has several swine farms accredited to export cut pork meat products to Singapore.

However, the maiden shipment was aborted in December following the confirmation of the Ebola Reston virus in some provinces in Luzon.

Dr Antonio Ephraim Marin, city veterinarian, said General Santos was the second largest swine producer last year in the country, next only to Bulacan, reports Sun Star.

Further Reading

-

Go to our previous news item on this story by clicking here.