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View all search resultsRiau Islands pig farm unready to revive Singapore exports after ASF scare, official says
A Riau Islands official has said livestock company ITS has yet to fulfill all measures required at its 1,500-hectare pig farm on Bulan Island to restart exports to Singapore.
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A worker takes a blood sample from a pig at a farm belonging to PT Indo Tirta Suaka (ITS) on Bulan Island in the Riau Islands, in this undated photo from the Agriculture Ministry, provided in connection with the April 2023 outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in the province. (Courtesy of Agriculture Ministry/-)
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T Indo Tirta Suaka (ITS), which once ran the largest pig farm in Riau Islands province, still must cull its entire livestock population and clean and decontaminate its facilities, a local official has said, following the detection of African swine fever (ASF) in live pig exports by the Singapore Food Agency in April 2023.
Although the company has not closed the affected farm on Bulan Island in Batam, it has halted exports of live pigs to Singapore and laid off thousands of workers over the past year.
Rika Azmi, head of the Riau Islands Food Resilience, Agriculture and Veterinary Agency, confirmed on Thursday that ITS was currently in the process of culling the farm’s pig population.
“There is still an opportunity to export pigs to Singapore. We must keep pushing to [revive] exports,” said Rika.
She added that ITS must complete a series of stringent measures within a certain time frame, including sterilization, before it could reapply for an export permit.
“After the farm is sterilized, only then can the company repopulate until the number of pigs is sufficient, followed by testing of compartments by the Agriculture Ministry,” Rika said, noting that although ASF monitoring was in place at the farm, full recovery would take a long time due to a requirement for testing pig pens.
Meanwhile, she said the agency had yet to receive an official report from ITS that it would permanently close the pig farm on Bulan Island.
