After taking steps to ensure a steady supply of rice, meat, fish, chicken and other basic food commodities until the Christmas season, retail prices have stabilized or if not gone down in recent weeks, said officials from the Department of Agriculture.
Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) field monitoring reports in the first week of November noted that the per-kilo price of regular milled rice has gone down to an average of P30 from P37 in July while that of refined sugar has fallen to P36 from its P38 level during the past three months and from P40 per kilo in October of last year.
The aggressive procurement and distribution operations done by the DA during the peak of the tight global rice supply has also led to the price drop in the staple commodities despite the international price shock that saw world market rates almost tripling beyond $1,000 per metric ton (MT) from the average rate of just $380 per MT in early 2008.
Meanwhile, chicken has remained stable at P120 a kilo over the past three months while those of choice pork cuts like liempo and kasim have fallen to the P150 to P160 range from the previous levels of as high as P170 to P180 a kilo, said DA Assistant Secretary Salvador Salacup in a statement.
Salacup said that the United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA) had assured the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC) of adequate supply of chicken for the Christmas season.
In fact, the industry leaders clamor for a lower retail price per kilo to boost consumer demand and lead to a faster turnover of their stocks at the farm level.
In a phone interview, the National Federation of Hog Farmers also assured sufficient supply of pork-based products for the holiday season.
Last month, retail prices of prime pork cuts fell to as low as P130 a kilo in certain wet markets after soaring to as high as P170 to P180 in September.
This happened after major industry players from hog growers, meat processors to wholesalers and retailers agreed during a consultative meeting with DA officials to adopt a suggested “reference price” band of P140 to P150 per kilo of prime pork cuts.
This suggested reference price band has generated the support of the country’s supermarket chains and the two organizations: Philippine Association of Supermarkets Inc. (PASI) and the Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association (PAGASA).
The favorable price trend of basic commodities is partly a result of the continued DA efforts to mobilize support among the various agriculture industry sub-sectors for a freeze on price adjustments ahead of the yuletide season, said Salacup.