The Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) in Negros Oriental is appealing to hog suppliers to sell their animals in Dumaguete City to bring down the prices of pork.
Jaymar Vilos, PVO information officer-designate, said pork in the city is being sold at P400 or more for one kilogram for lean meat, which is higher than the P320 to P380/kg. in other areas.
“Hog suppliers, such as in the northern towns of Negros Oriental, prefer to sell their animals to nearby Cebu City where the buying price for live pigs is higher,” Vilos said in an interview.
With this, traders in Dumaguete are forced to buy the hogs at a competitive price offered by their Cebu counterparts, resulting in higher prices of pork, he added.
Prices of lechon, or roasted whole pig, also went up due to the competitive prices of hogs in the market.
Vilos pointed out that the PVO does not have regulatory powers over the hog industry, which means that suppliers are free to sell their animals elsewhere.
He added that they are recommending that the Provincial Price Monitoring Council be activated to look into the problem.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) earlier said it was looking into the rise of pork prices to prevent possible profiteering in local markets.
DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said they have been closely monitoring the price levels of pork for the past weeks.
The agency had attributed the rising prices of pork to the post-demand season during the holidays and the effects of the African swine fever on local production.
It added that the decision on whether to set the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) for pork may be known by the end of February.
Tiu Laurel said they need another two-week timeline to identify the reason behind the spiking prices of retail pork. “If we have identified that there’s profiteering, then definitely, we will be doing an MSRP for pork.”
Tiu Laurel said the farmgate prices of pork remain at P240 per kilogram to P250/kg-level, making some in the retail prices “unreasonable.”
“Why is there a P380 to P420-level in markets. I’m looking into the P100 gap that I’m seeing. We’re currently studying that and digging deep on the whole value chain of pork. Anything above P400 is unreasonable,” he added. ||
