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Filipinos told to brace for higher pork, chicken prices


Filipinos should brace for higher pork and chicken prices with the looming dry spell brought by the El Niño weather pattern. The extended drought could stunt the growth of pigs and chickens, resulting in a slight cut in production, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) said on Thursday. The hog and poultry industry is projected to lose as much as P10 billion because of the dry spell, the Agriculture department told GMA Network's Unang Balita. The bureau said backyard businesses would suffer the biggest blow since almost three-quarters of the country's swine and poultry production come from small suppliers. The BAI said the country still has five million kilos each of pork and chicken in its inventory.


Market vendors are worried that pork and chicken price increases could affect their profitability as a result of declining demand. A vendor at the Kalentong market in Quezon City said she and her colleagues were afraid consumers would no longer buy meat. "How can we make ends meet? We are losing money now, what more if pork prices go up?" a vendor told dzBB radio in Filipino. The vendor, who did not want to be named, said they might lose customers one pork prices go up to as high as P200 per kilo. The vendor claimed they were just breaking even with a price of P160-P170 per kilo for pork. Cloud-seeding Meanwhile, the agriculture sector is expected to lose P10 billion in the upcoming dry season, even as the Agriculture department said it was taking measures to curb its effects. "The Agriculture department has laid down a program to help our fishermen and farmers. We expect only moderate effects from El Niño," Agriculture Undersecretary Bernado Fondevilla told Unang Balita in Filipino. The El Niño phenomenon, which can bring global weather chaos such as droughts and floods, is expected to hit 500,000 hectares of the country's rice fields, will also affect production of rice, corn, vegetables, and fisheries, Fondevilla said. He said the department would start cloud-seeding, a process that stimulates cloud precipitation to form rain. Fondevilla said they hope to get P1.7-billion to address the El Niño problem. They hope to start the cloud-seeing soon until March. "We are feeling the effects of El Niño. Some have complained that we have not had that much rain," he added. Among the provinces experiencing the early effects of the dry spell are Isabela, Cagayan, as well as some parts of Bulacan and Pampanga in Luzon; and Panay, Samar, and Leyte in the Visayas, Fondevilla said. "Hindi naman tuyung-tuyo (It is not that arid). [They are only] experiencing low rainfall," Fondevilla clarified, adding that the country's irrigation systems have enough water supply. He discounted more rice imports as long as the effects are mitigated. "NFA (National Food Authority) stocks are in place. We are hoping that with our intervention, there is no need to import," Fondevilla said. Should there be a need to import rice, however, the government might bring in 300,000 metric tons of the basic commodity, he added. Earlier, the government said crop losses from the dry spell that threatens at least 47 provinces until early next year could reach P56.4 billion. Besides palay, corn and fisheries, the country's coconut and sugarcane plantations are also threatened by El Niño. The Agriculture department earlier created a task force that will raise crop production along with farmers’ incomes in the face of the looming El Niño attack. — Nikka Corsino/NPA, GMANews.TV
Tags: elnino, elniño, , pork, chicken
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