Hog farmers association asks gov’t for ASF vaccine subsidy

The National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NFHFI) on Sunday appealed to the government to subsidize or, at least, shoulder half of the cost of the vaccine against African Swine Fever, to help small and medium scale local hog farmers.

NFHFI President Chester Tan said that while there is still no definite price per ASF vaccine dose being released, he suspects it would be between P400 to P600, which is very high for framers.

“Sana hindi maging totoo ito presyong P400 to P600. Napakamahal po. Hindi na ito affordable tsaka hindi na siya ganun ka-feasible. Kapag ganyan ang amount, ay baka hindi na gumamit imbes gusto ng lahat ay gumamit eh napakataas ng presyo,” he said.

(I hope this projected P400 to P600 price is inaccurate. It’s very expensive. It’s not affordable and infeasible, and farmers might be tempted not to use the

BOI foreign investment approvals surge Jan-May to over P400-B

Approved investments from foreign sources at the Board of Investments (BOI) posted a significant increase in the first five months of the year.

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary and BOI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo told trade reporters in a Viber message over the weekend that foreign investment approvals surged in January to May this year by 7,076 percent to PHP403.86 billion from PHP5.63 billion in the same period in 2022.

Investment pledges from foreign sources now have the largest share in BOI approvals at 76 percent.

Trade Secretary and BOI chair Alfredo Pascual earlier said BOI approved three offshore wind projects worth PHP390 billion in the first quarter of 2023 alone.

Last year, the DTI chief’s letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) prompted the latter to issue an opinion that natural resources, including renewable energy, were not covered by the constitutional limitations on foreign ownership.

The DOJ opinion allowed the amendments to the Renewable Energy Act, particularly allowing foreign investors’ 100 percent ownership on renewable energy projects.

vaccine at all, even if they wanted to.)

“Ang hinihiling namin sa ating gobyerno, na sana magkaroon ng subsidy. Kung hindi man libre, sana ma-absorb nila... ma-shoulder nila ‘yung kahit na 50% sa commercial farms lalo sa mga small scale raisers,” he added.

We are appealing for government subsidy. If not 100%, at least, 50%, especially to small

The BOI approved PHP532.27 billion in investment pledges from January to May, more than double the project registrations last year at PHP205.73 billion.

The pledges came from 106 projects registered with the investment promotion agency, which are expected to create 18,883 direct jobs.

Big ticket projects approved by the BOI in the early parts of the year were renewable energy, especially offshore wind projects.

On Friday, Madrid-based BlueFloat Energy announced that it has chosen the Philippines as the location of its biggest offshore wind projects with 7.6 gigawatts of planned capacity.

BlueFloat executives said the company has yet to register the projects with the BOI despite securing the service contracts from the Department of Energy.

Rodolfo said the BOI has PHP1 trillion investment pledges in the pipeline for the year.

BOI targets to hit PHP1.5 trillion in investment approvals by the end of 2023. (PNA)