The practice of using kitchen waste as swine feed by hog farmers in Taiwan will be temporarily suspended for one month in September, the Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) for African swine fever (ASF) announced during a press meeting Friday.

Council of Agriculture (COA) chief Chen Chi-chung (???), who heads the center for ASF, said the term “kitchen waste” refers to leftover meats coming from household foods and meat processing companies.

Food waste that does not contain any meat such as bread crusts or fruit and vegetable residue can still be used by farmers to feed their pigs, Chen said.

The move is aimed at preventing ASF from hitting the country’s high-value pig farming industry and will be in effect throughout September, with hog farm operators not allowed to receive kitchen waste from suppliers starting Aug. 30, the CEOC said.

According to the emergency operations center, farmers found with banned kitchen waste at their farms during the one-month period will face a fine of between NT$50,000 (US$1,789) and NT$1 million in accordance with the Statute for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Diseases.

Meanwhile, the minister said the government is also prepared to subsidize local hog farmers to help cover the extra cost of them switching to grain-based swine feed during the month.

A budget of around NT$500 million has already been allocated for this purpose, Chen said.

Taiwan has about 6,400 pig farms, 676 of which use kitchen waste as feed for their animals which currently total 430,000.

The COA chief said farmers will be able to receive a subsidy of NT$500 per pig from the government during the period, while they can also opt to use this opportunity to claim a one-time fee of NT$2,500 per pig to switch to grain feed permanently.

As of Thursday, authorities had visited 5,317 pig farms to check whether the food waste being fed to the hogs contained pork products, according to the COA.

Of the total of 81 items tested, 10 came back positive for the ASF virus, the council said.

The checks were launched after 71 kilograms of banned imported meat products from Vietnam were seized in New Taipei last week and were later found to contain the ASF virus.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel