President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday imposed a price ceiling on selected pork and chicken products in Metro Manila following a sharp rise in food prices, the Palace said.
In a statement, Malacañang said the President signed Executive Order No. 124 upon the recommendation of the Department of Agriculture to address significant increases in prices of basic necessities such as pork and chicken that have become an undue burden on Filipinos, especially the underprivileged and marginalized.
Pork prices have risen dramatically because African swine fever (ASF) has led to the culling of nearly 500,000 hogs.
Under the EO, the mandated price ceiling of pork, particularly kasim or pigue is P270 per kilo while the price ceiling of liempo is P300 per kilo.
The mandated price ceiling of dressed chicken is P160 per kilo. The ceilings will be in place for 60 days.
Under Republic Act 7581 or the Price Act, the President, upon recommendation of the implementing agency or the Price Coordinating Council, may impose a price ceiling on any basic necessity during the existence or effect of any emergency or calamity.
Meanwhile, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) recommended that the DA place critical agricultural produce that are most prone to price fluctuations under an expanded suggested retail price (SRP).
During the Senate hearing Monday, DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said the DTI and the DA could collaborate on this initiative to manage price surges of critical agricultural products, especially pork which has already breached record price levels.
“It is true that we recommended to the DA to resort to having an SRP on agricultural produce, not only on retail but also on wholesale and even with… traders,” he said.
If the recommendation is carried out, this would be the first time that the DA would subject even wholesalers and traders to comply with SRP, Lopez said.
While the DA had put some products under an SRP, the measure did not stop prices from rising.
Compared to farm gate prices of P132 to P135 per kilogram (kg), pork retails at P380 to as much as P450 per kilo.
There were even reports of certain markets in Metro Manila selling at P500 per kilo—compared to production cost of P105 per kilo.
“We see the significance of having SRP in all the various levels of the supply chain. Retailers are forced to arrive at a mark-up of like P10 per kilo only, which is not much, based on the selling price of the traders, Lopez said.
The DTI and the DA both agreed that transportation was one of the major contributors to the surge in pork prices. Since transportation is a fixed cost regardless of the volume of products delivered, the cost per kilogram of pork goes up with a lower volume of delivery.
“That is why we see that the only solution to this is to improve the supply of pork in the market and manage the selling prices of traders,” Lopez said.
The Task Group on Food Security proposed the designation of a nautical highway from Luzon and Mindanao and the Maharlika Highway in Luzon as special hog lanes which was approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) about three days ago.
The dedicated lanes for hogs delivery are expected to speed up and ease the shipments of pork from the Visayas and Mindanao.
The DA is also working on increasing pork importation by as much as 160,000 kilograms from sources that are free from the African swine fever.
At a hearing in the Senate, Senator Cynthia Villar, chairman of the committee on agriculture, quoted the United Nations, saying the rebuilding of economies after the COVID-19 crisis offers a unique opportunity to transform the global food system and make it resilient to future shocks, ensuring environmentally sustainable and healthy nutrition for all.
To make this happen, Villar said the UN proposed a broad shift in the food system by building resilient food supply chains.
“Food produced locally and nearby can be distributed more efficiently, lowering risks of food insecurity, malnutrition, and hikes in food prices, while creating local jobs. This calls for a rural transformation to empower small producers and retailers and mainstream them in the food systems economy,” she said.
During the hearing, Senator Imee Marcos took executive agencies to task for failing to bring prices under control.
Senator Francis Pangilinan introduced Senate Resolution No. 618 calling for an inquiry on the rising food prices, with the end in view of determining the necessary interventions to stabilize the prices and ensure that every Filipino consumer has access to adequate and affordable food.
Senator Risa Hontiveros said the price freeze should be applied on the entire value chain and not just on retailers. Hontiveros expressed concern that only small retailers of basic goods would be affected and punished by the imposition of freeze.
“Why will we punish our small retailers when the price increase could be happening at the farm gate, assemblers, cold storage and even in transport?” Hontiveros said.
Lopez, citing his department’s recommendation to the DA to impose SRPs down the entire value chain, agreed.
Senator Nancy Binay asked local poultry breeders to submit to Villar’s committee suggestions or programs that would help the industry recover from the adverse effects of fowl importation.
Binay learned from the hearing that local poultry breeders had either closed shop or cut production due to the flood of imported chicken in the market last year.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto likened the Department of Agriculture budget to “a dam of water, filled with taxes people pay.”
“But instead of a mighty river that rolls like justice, what records show is a drip-drip of releases, of slow obligation and low absorption,” he said.
He said the DA is the most favored agency of DA. In the Bayanihan I, it has an P11.39 billion share. It was given an additional P23.3 billion in Bayanihan II. This was designed as farm aid, to be given in a targeted and timely manner.
