Even if the implementation of a price freeze on farm commodities from November to December failed to stop the cost of pork and chicken from rising, the government is still keen on resorting to the same strategy, which is hoped to be finalized within the week.
In a virtual briefing on Monday, Agriculture Secretary William Dar assured “there is enough supply of food in the country”, and that traders and wholesalers are just manipulating the supply and price of farm commodities, except pork since the supply of which has been significantly affected by the African Swine Fever (ASF).
This, he said, should be addressed by the Executive Order (EO) on another price freeze and the imposition of a price ceiling on pork and chicken.
He said the EO is now being evaluated by the Office of the President and should have the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte within the week.
According to him, another basis for the EO would be the country being under a state of calamity because of the persistence of ASF, a fatal animal disease among hogs.
"The calamity that we can identify, which is the basis for a price ceiling to a price freeze, is the ASF calamity," Dar said. "That's the perception of DA".
Technically, the Philippines has been under the State of Calamity since September 13, 2020, and will remain so until September 12, 2021, unless earlier lifted or extended, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is based on Proclamation No. 1021 signed by Duterte.
But then, Duterte also particularly imposed a 60-day price freeze in November, following another declaration of state calamity, particularly in Luzon, in the wake of Typhoon Ulysses.
The 60-day price freeze, which expired more than a week ago, covered basic food items like rice, pork, chicken, beef, vegetables, root crops, sugar, fresh fruits, canned fish, and other marine products, among other basic commodities.
Despite the price freeze, however, prices of meat and vegetables have remained high throughout December and until this month.
Based on the latest monitoring report of DA, the prevailing prices of pork kasim as of Monday stood around P360/kg to P350/kg, while pork liempo costs P420/kg to P380/kg.
A kilo of whole dressed chicken, on the other hand, costs around P170 to P180.
In the draft of the aforementioned EO, price caps of P270/kg for pork kasim and P300/kg for liempo are requested.
As for the whole dressed chicken, the price cap recommendation stood at P160/kg.
Such a 60-days price freeze should “prevent opportunistic businesses especially traders and wholesalers to manipulate prices,” Dar reiterated.
Likewise, Dar said the DA is already finalizing the plan to triple the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) allocation for pork imports, from 54,000 metric tons (MT) to more than 160,000 MT, in order to encourage producers and importers to import more of the commodity.
Pork imports under MAV are only levied a 30 percent tariff, while the out-quota tariff is 40 percent.
For his part, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) Chairperson Rosendo So said that instead of increasing imports, the DA should just give subsidies to local pork producers from Visayas and Mindanao so they can ship their hogs to Luzon at a lower cost.
“The government can’t even help the industry, the local hog raisers, boost its stocks amid the ASF, now they want to make us suffer even more by helping out pork importers,” So said.