DA: Enough food supply for holidays

MANILA, Philippines — There will be no pork shortage as the holiday season approaches, the Department of Agriculture (DA) assured the public.

“This Christmas season, we are making sure that pork, chicken, rice and vegetable supplies are stable. The local production of pork and chicken is stable and additional imports will arrive by fourth quarter,” DA Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said in Filipino over radio dzBB.

De Mesa added that newly appointed Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has made it his goal to improve the production of agricultural commodities.

Laurel earlier said he plans to conduct a performance review of current officials before implementing a possible shuffle within the agency.

He is also planning to implement changes in rice farming to lower the cost of production through modernization, better irrigation and use of higher-yielding varieties.

Laurel said that President Marcos’ campaign promise of P20 per kilo of rice is currently not possible, especially as the prices in the world market are still high.