The Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. is intensifying its collection efforts for the unpaid loans obtained by hog raisers, including those in Negros Occidental, under the agency's P1.6-billion Swine Production Loan Program.

Quedancor Director Albert R.T. Lim said yesterday that Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has directed him, being a hog raiser, to oversee the loan collection activities. "All branches of Quedancor have been instructed to focus on collection," he told the DAILY STAR in a telephone interview.

The collectibles now run to more than half of the P1.6-billion loan portfolio, Lim, who is also president of the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc., said. The swine loan program was initiated during the term of former Secretary Luis Lorenzo in 2005 after a reported shortage of pork meat in the local market.

Lorenzo then ordered Quedancor to release funds for the hog industry to be lent directly to hog raisers for purchase of hogs and feeds and other inputs.

But many projects funded under the swine loan program did not take off because many hog raisers encountered problems in inputs from suppliers, Lim said.

For instance, some suppliers pass off slaughter hogs as breeder hogs, and because many hog raisers are inexperienced, they couldn't detect the difference between the two.

Lim said that since Quedancor is having a collection problem, it has also limited the release of loans to hog raisers.

We need to collect first before we can release more loans, he said.*NLG

back to top