Pork price down, fish up after Ineng

MANILA, Philippines - Prices of pork, potato and eggplant dropped in Metro Manila markets while the prices of fish and highland vegetables went up after Typhoon Ineng hit Northern Luzon, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said yesterday.

Based on the price and supply monitoring of the DA’s Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service, prices of pork belly dropped by P10 per kilogram.

Prices of galunggong (round scad) and alumahan rose by P10 and P60 per kilogram, respectively.

“This can be attributed to the sailing restrictions due to the typhoon,” said DA assistant secretary for agribusiness Leandro Gazmin.

The average retail prices of potato and eggplant are lower by P10 per kilogram, while the price of cabbage rose by as much as P70 per kilogram. Carrot prices are up by as much as P90 per kilogram and pechay baguio up by P40 per kilogram.

“These highland vegetables are prone to rotting thus, changes in prices are common during the rainy season,” Gazmin said.

For lowland vegetables, tomato prices rose by P10 per kilogram and native pechay by P30 per kilogram.

Gazmin said the supply of vegetables in markets remains normal.

He said prices of highland vegetables would normalize soon with the arrival of additional 3,000 kilograms from the La Trinidad Trading Post.

Typhoon Ineng destroyed P40.86 billion worth of palay, corn and high value crops, mostly in the Cordillera Administrative Region.