DA says there will be enough, pork, chicken, onions

There will be enough chicken and pork in the country despite the anticipated increase in demand for the commodities owing to the upcoming holidays, the Department of Agriculture said. The agency said some 4,000 metric tons of imported pork and 2,000 MT of imported chicken will arrive within the week to fill in the gap in the local production, and to prevent spike in their prices. “This is to prevent unnecessary spike in the prices of pork and chicken," said Salvador Salacup, DA assistant secretary. Before the Christmas season last year, the government implemented a scheme, suggesting a reference price for pork as retail prices for the commodity soared to as high as P180 to P190 per kilo of choice cuts. Retail prices eventually stabilized at P145 to P170 per kilo. Initiatives of local hog raisers involve transporting pork from Mindanao and importing some 15,000 to 20,000 metric tons of pork and 5,000 MT of chicken from the United States , Canada and South Korea . “The arrival of the supply of pork from the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga in Mindanao , which consists of about 3,000 head, is expected in the last week of November and in December," Salacup said The latest monitoring report by Agriculture field teams show that the price of pork kasim is between P150 to P180 a kilo and liempo at P160 to P190 a kilo, Salacup said. As for chicken, Salacup said poultry producers said they will bring in 5,000 metric tons from the US and Canada to augment domestic supply. Meanwhile, as much as 7,000 metric tons of white and red onions will also be imported by domestic traders to ease a shortage in the local market as well as in the supermarket shelves. Following a consultation with local onion stakeholders, the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) decided to issue permits to import both red and sweet onions that will arrive no later than the second week of December. "Onion supply is low. The government and the industry agreed to import of the domestic market," said Joel Rudinas, Bureau of Plant Industry director. The BPI estimates that the Philippines consumes around 10,000 MT of onions monthly. Onion producers agreed to the importation only if the government would only allow it in batches so as to avoid depressing the commodity’s prices. The usual peak harvest season for onions is from March to April while the lean season is from June to December. Based on the November 21 monitor of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, the prevailing retail price of red onions in wet markets is at P70 per kilogram. The Philippines resorts to importing onions from countries such as China to plug the gap in available supply and local demand. Last year, onion farmers noted a 45-percent decline in their production owing to too much rain. -GMANews.TV