Iloilo City upgrades new slaughterhouse

Friday 1st of June 2012

ILOILO CITY, June 1 (PIA) -- The Iloilo City government has already started to upgrade its new slaughterhouse in Brgy. Tacas, Jaro to conform to the double or triple A standards of the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS).

Iloilo City Local Economic Enterprise Office officer-in-charge Vincent de la Cruz said that the upgrading of the new slaughterhouse worth almost P40 million has already started this month and is expected to be completed in August.

A project brief from the city government said that the improvement of the Iloilo City new slaughterhouse is composed of civil works of about P13,420,000, slaughterhouse equipment of P15,676,080 and cold storage of P8,903,920.

The fund was provided by the national government through senator Franklin Drilon in support of the efforts of the city government led by mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog to qualify for the NMIS accreditation and enable the facility to produce safe and quality meat products.

De la Cruz said the double A or triple A accreditation from NMIS is very much needed by the city, citing that this is one of the requirements for hotels here to earn five-star rating.

“With the improvement, we are also expecting that big companies such as Monterey and SM City will also consider using the facilities of our new slaughterhouse for the processing of their meat products which will also mean additional economic activities for our hog owners,” said de la Cruz.

Meat products being displayed by Monterey and SM City are required to pass through a double A or triple A slaughterhouses.

According to De la Cruz, as of now, Monterey uses the facilities of the Passi City slaughterhouse while meat products displayed at SM stores here come from General Santos City.

The double A accreditation would also mean that products coming from the new slaughterhouse can be distributed to other parts of the country.

Once the improvement is completed, De la Cruz said all hogs and cattle will be processed at the new slaughterhouse. To date, the processing of cattle is still being done at the old slaughterhouse in Molo district.

De la Cruz said that with this we can assure that meat sold in our market is fit for human consumption.

The new slaughterhouse started its operations in 2008. Daily, around 200 heads of hogs are slaughtered.

The on-going project at the new slaughterhouse will be one of the development projects, which will be presented by Mabilog to President Benigno S. Aquino during his visit to this city on June 1. (JCM/LAF-PIA6)