Robina Farms of the Gokongwei family has closed down its piggery in Bustos, Bulacan which has been hit with African Swine Fever.
Residents in Barangay Malamig said the piggery was closed even before the Christmas holidays.
The Robina Farms piggery in barangay Malamig is its biggest satellite farm where 12-week old piglets are brought to be fattened before they are slaughtered. Its capacity was raised to 50,000 heads from 30,000 heads just before ASF found its way into the country.
Robina Farms also has a bigger facility in San Miguel Bulacan where it has a main feeder farm and another feeder farm in Antipolo, Rizal. Both towns were also affected by ASF and industry sources said ASF practically wiped out the feeder farm in Antipolo.
URC has reportedly lost P544 million from its pig business.
As of September 30 last year, the value of URCās assets had fallen to P188.5 from P733.4 million in 2019 due to the decline in the number of hogs it held.
At the end of 2018, URC had 232,724 pigs but it fell to 209,640 in 2019 when ASF started to spread in the country. (Eileen Mencias)
