THE Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) of Negros Occidental and the Alliance of Hog Raisers Association in Negros Occidental (Ahrano) are working on sustaining the development of the province's swine industry amid the threat brought by the African Swine Fever (ASF).
Composed of at least 37 local hog associations, Ahrano has been a partner of the province in the development of its P6-billion swine industry.
It is a PVO organized and assisted organization consisting of about 15,000 hog raisers provincewide.
During the alliance's meeting recently, the PVO and Ahrano discussed the marketing aspect of swine especially live hog buying and meat shop operation amid the positive cases of ASF in some provinces in the country.
As Negros Occidental remains an ASF-free province, opportunities were also identified including the coming-in of more buyers from both local and national markets.
Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena urged member-swine raisers to check on their capacity "if we could keep up to sustain the supply of the growing demand on pork meat in the local markets and that of neighboring provinces."
The meeting also underscored the preparation for this year's Panaad sa Negros Festival celebration in April.
Ahrano committed to support the annual "Lechonaad Parade" and boodle fight.
Also, the organization held its annual election of officers who will represent and oversee its activities and operations.
The new set of officers included Ric Lauron as president; Cynthia Dela Cruz - vice president; Wilma Dignos - secretary; Richard Montalban - assistant secretary; Nerlylynn Lim - treasurer; Willy Lee - assistant treasurer; Albert Javier - public information officer; and Anthony Angeles and Mark Espolon - auditors.