DA mulls support prices for chicken, hog raisers
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is studying to provide farm support prices (suggested buying prices) for chicken and hog raisers in the country.
“We will consider” providing farm support prices for “chicken and pork,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol told reporters at the sidelines of the opening of World Food Day at the DA grounds in Quezon City.
Piñol said on Monday that producers were seeking a support price of P80 per kilo for pork.
“They are also asking if there should be a farm support price for chicken,” Piñol added.
The DA chief said they still needed to discuss the matter with industry stakeholders.
Sought for comment, Edwin Chen, president of the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines (ProPork) said the imposition of farm support price would greatly help producers in the country.
But to come up with an acceptable farm support price, Chen said details such as production cost, as well as the price of inputs and feeds, would have to be taken into account.
Chen accounted the rising price of inputs to higher prices of petroleum products as well as the natural calamities that affected their produce.
Although it varies from one place to another, Chen pegged the farmgate or the price for the sale of farm produce direct from the producer at P120-P130.
Aside from chicken and pork, Pinol said the DA is also considering farm support price for local rice growers.
“We’re studying farm support price even for producers of rice,” he said. Pinol said the support price for rice should not go lower than P18.
Pinol explained that the artificial manipulation of prices and supply in the market, not insufficient supply, has caused the increase in prices of basic commodities.
Earlier, Piñol said the government would start implementing SRP for rice this month to halt profiteering and bring down prices of the staple in the market.
“We’re looking at P38 for imported rice while P39 for regular milled local rice, maybe P42 for well-milled rice and P44 for whole grain head rice,” Piñol told reporters in a press briefing.
The price range, he said, would be finalized in a meeting with farmers, traders, and millers on Thursday.
The government would also impose a “moving price ceiling” for chicken as part of its efforts to bring down prices.
Both the DA and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will issue a memorandum of agreement to institute a moving ceiling price for chicken.
“In other words, it will move with farm gate prices but at least we can control the trading part, the dressing, logistics in between the farm gate and the retailing so that the maximum cap will only be P50,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez told reporters in an interview.
“For instance, if the farm gate price is P82, then the [selling price]should only be P132,” he said, adding the ceiling price would be updated every three days.
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