Price of pork set to increase?

Be ready for an increase in the price of pork and related food products throughout the country.

It's been reported by Reuters today that about 50,000 pigs in (no_permission_to_use_this_word) state are set to be culled following complaints about the stench and pollution the animals had caused.

"The operation has started and within 12 hours they have to slaughter close to 50,000 pigs," said a veterinary department official in Putrajaya. "I think many farms were operating without proper licences and local people were complaining about the smell and water pollution."

Reuters did not elaborate who made the complaints but it reported that farmers there claimed their pigs were perfectly healthy and did not cause any pollution.

"We don't know if they are going to shoot the pigs or just bury them alive. It is not fair, these pigs are healthy and they are not really a source of pollution because many farms do practice good waste disposal habits," said an official of the Federation of Livestock Farmers' Associations of Malaysia who declined to be named.

According to Reuters, the media here said the (no_permission_to_use_this_word) state chief minister, Mohamad Ali Rustam, had reported last month that he did not want the state to emerge as Malaysia's biggest pig producer, with a swine population estimated at 160,000.

UPDATE: It's reported in The New Straits Times that the state government has given pig farmers until 21 Sep 2007 to relocate their pigs. Presently, some 100,000 pigs are being reared in Kampung Bukit Beruang, Kampung Man Lok and Paya Mengkuang but the State Secretary, Ismail Saleh, said only 48,000 pigs will be allowed here.

"With this, initial plans to cull the pigs have been called off," he said. "We hope that the farmers will honour the agreement and move some 52,000 pigs before the deadline."