Agriculture Sec William Dar announced that the implementation of the price cap on pork and chicken will be moved on February 8, 20221 to ensure that the country has an adequate supply.
He said the EO also needs time to get published and to sell all of the vendors’ stocks.
Under EO 124, the price of pork and kasim is set at P270 per kilo, while liempo should be up to P300 per kilo.
The price of chicken was also lowered to P160 per kilo under the EO, which will last for 2 months.
According to Dar, based on their calculations, the farmgate price of pork in General Santos City is P145, and the production cost is P124.79 per kilo. So, the sellers are still earning a P15.28 or 11.78 percent mark-up.
If the factor of African swine fever (ASF) is added to the computation, the adjusted farmgate price is said to be P200 per kilo.
At the hearing of the House Committee on Agriculture and Food, Alyansa Agrikultura chairman Ernesto Ordoñez said they were not consulted on the calculation of the price cap under the EO signed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Price cap on pork, chicken begins Feb. 8 – Dar
“It was not done properly. It was not done with consultations. They did not do their consultation. They should do it. I agree with Mr. Dar, it’s profiteers,” said Ordoñez.
Ordoñez wonders why the government wants to lower the tariff on imported pork.
“It’s much cheaper to import than local (production), and you want to give them more tariff reduction? They will make even more money… Don’t decrease tariffs, please. You’re killing us,” he said.
“We’ve never been so upset as we are now. Number one, the price is not calculated properly. And number 2, the tariffs you want to decrease it so — God’s sake, come on, you already harmed us,” he added.
Several groups of pig farmers and poultry farmers appealed to the government on Tuesday to have adequate consultations before implementing the executive order (EO) which sets a price ceiling for pork and chicken sold in the markets.