No price increase this Christmas – agri group

MANILA, Philippines - Two weeks before Christmas, the agriculture industry alliance SINAG (Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura) sees no reason for any significant increase in the prices of basic food and agriculture commodities as farm gate prices of food staples remain the same or have even decreased.

Since the end of October, SINAG has been releasing its weekly Farm gate Price Watch to guide both consumers and government agencies on the actual price changes of basic food commodities.

Composed of more than 30 groups of rice, corn and vegetable farmers and traders, pork, livestock and poultry producers, aquaventure groups and fertilizer and pesticide suppliers, SINAG said most of the country’s palay and corn have been harvested even prior to Yolanda.

The livestock industry also assured the public of sufficient supply of pork and chicken. “In fact sobra sobra pa nga ang manok, kaya’t bumaba nang halos 10 piso nung isang linggo ang presyo ng live chicken” SINAG chairman Rosendo So said.

Representing millions of workers in the farming and allied sectors, SINAG said there is no justifiable reason for any dramatic increase in the retail prices of basic food commodities since there is enough domestic supply and farm gate prices have remained the same over the last eight weeks. “If there would be increases, concerned government agencies should look into it dahil hindi galing sa mga farmers and producers ang pagtaas,” warned Dan Javellana, chairman of the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc and SINAG leader.

“What we are worried about are reports of smuggled frozen pork products being dumped anew in our local wet markets across Metro Manila and beyond. These frozen pork products are usually thawed and mixed with our local slaughtered pork, then passed off as fresh pork,” Javellana stressed.

 â€œThese unscrupulous practices will not only adversely impact our domestic livestock industry but more so put to risk the health and well-being of unsuspecting customers since these smuggled imports did not pass through rigid food safety and public health inspection. We have already asked the Department of Agriculture and concerned local government units to urgently look into this issue,” Javellana said.