Guatemalan authorities will meet with a committee of the World Organization for Animal Health, in order to declare the country free of classical swine fever and restart foreign sales.
The restrictions date back many years, since in 2011 the countries of the region established barriers to the entry of pork from Guatemala, after the presence of Classical Swine Fever was detected.
Entrepreneurs in the sector plan to resume sales to El Salvador and Honduras during the second half of the year, after their restriction in 2011.
In 2011, countries in the region imposed restrictions on the entry of pork from Guatemala, after detecting the presence ofClassical Swine Fever.Now, Guatemalan pork producers are preparing to resume sales in the coming months.
Agricultural production in Mexico is favored by the devaluation of the peso, which has encouraged smuggling to Guatemala of pork products, coffee, poultry and eggs.
The union of entrepreneurs in the agricultural and livestock sector is claiming that it is now not only pork which is being traded illegally on the border, but other products such as coffee, eggs and poultry.
The producers union has estimated the number of pigs per month which are smuggled illegally from Mexico at 2500, causing losses of $15 million a year.
The Association of Pork Producers of Guatemala (APOGUA) states that the annual pork sales total $323 million, but could be more if it were possible to minimize the illicit flow of pork from Mexico.
In the last four years pork production has fallen 15% with 497,000 head of pigs in 2010.
The data is the result of the last pig census conducted by the Guatemalan Association of Pig Breeders (Apogua in Spanish). Apogua's president, Marco Tulio Figueroa, indicated that one of the reasons for the reduction of is the low price locally compared to the high cost of production (fuel and concentrated feed).
Guatemalan pig breeders are awaiting permission from the Salvadoran Government to resume exports on February.
They expect to ship the equivalent of 500 animals each week.
Marco Tulio Figueroa, president of Apogua, the Guatemalan Pig Breeders Association, told Sigloxxi.om that “in our industrialized farms, we produce 22 piglets for each one of our 25.000 female pigs; this translates to 550.000 thousand a year and 45.833 per month”.
The Government of Guatemala consulted its Salvadoran homologous for blocking Guatemalan pork.
Rubén Morales, Economy minister, explained they "will study this measure and consult the Salvadoran Government on this situation".
"Apogua, the Association of Pork Producers of Guatemala, denounced that El Salvador is blocking the entrance of pork, even though the World Organization for Animal Health certified Guatemala as free from pork flu on October 8th", reported Google News.
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