SINGAPORE : Singaporeans will soon have more options when buying pork. The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has told Channel NewsAsia that it has approved the import of pork from Chile and the Philippines.

Singapore currently imports chilled and frozen pork from nine countries.

Most of the pork consumed here comes from Indonesia and Australia. And in future, it will be brought in from Chile and the Philippines as well.

But this will take some time because only two slaughterhouses in Chile have been approved to export frozen pork here.

AVA said that supply will depend on market forces.

Meanwhile, AVA is still processing the application from Philippine slaughterhouses.

NTUC FairPrice has welcomed the move to diversify Singapore's food sources.

Sales of frozen pork at its outlets have gone up by three times in the past three months.

It attributes this to due to, among other reasons, greater awareness on AVA's public education campaign on frozen meat.

More pork may also soon come from Malaysia, after a decade-long ban, which came into effect in 1999, when the Nipah virus - which is carried by pigs - struck some Malaysian farms, killing some 100 pig farmers there.

Malaysian newspaper 'The Star' on Sunday reported that a farm in Sarawak may soon export live pigs to Singapore.

But AVA said it has not received any official application from Sarawak.

It added that the application will need to meet Singapore's food safety standards. - CNA/ms