Lift freeze on pigs from Perak, urge Klang Valley butchers

KUALA LUMPUR: The KL Selangor Butchers’ Association has called on Putrajaya to lift the freeze on the transport of pigs to the Klang Valley from Perak to overcome the current pork shortage.

Its chairman Lee Peng Hock said Klang Valley needed 3,000 pigs a day to cater to the current demand. However, butchers are only supplied a herd of 500 heads a day from farms in Selangor.

“About 80% of our pork supplies are from Penang and Perak. Right now, pork supply in Penang has been halted due to the African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak.

“And because of this, Perak’s supply has also been halted because the government is worried that the virus would be transmitted,” he said at a press conference, pointing out that this has been a problem since Chinese New Year. Also present at the press conference was DAP’s Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng.

Lee said farmers in Perak have had their swine tested for ASF by a private company. Although the pigs were found to be uninfected, the reports were not accepted by the agriculture ministry.

Lee said the shortage had affected the price of pork in the Klang Valley and urged the government to resolve the issue immediately before supply ran out.

As at Jan 28, a total of 23 pig farms in Penang were found to be affected by ASF, according to chief minister Chow Kon Yeow.

The most recent detection of ASF was in a wild boar in Negeri Sembilan.

Source of the news: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2023/02/08/lift-freeze-on-pigs-from-perak-urge-klang-valley-butchers/