DTI releases price guide for 150 Noche Buena items

MANILA, Philippines — Over 150 stock keeping units (SKUs) of Noche Buena products have posted price increases, according to a price guide released by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) today.

At a media luncheon yesterday, Trade Assistant Secretary Amanda Nograles said the DTI will release this year’s Noche Buena price guide today.

Nograles said out of the 240 SKUs, around 35 percent or 83 SKUs have implemented price increases of one to five percent.

In addition, 15 percent or 37 SKUs posted price increases of six to 10 percent, while 13 percent or 32 SKUs posted price increases of more than 10 percent.

On the other hand, 21 SKUs posted price decreases, while the prices of 34 SKUs were unchanged.

The Noche Buena price guide covers products such as ham, fruit cocktail, keso de bola, cheese, sandwich spread, mayonnaise, pasta or spaghetti, elbow macaroni, salad macaroni, spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce and all-purpose cream.

In a message to The STAR yesterday, Nograles further explained that for ham products, three SKUs decreased by as much as 12.7 percent, six did not change while all others, except one SKU, kept the increases to a maximum of 3.7 percent.

“For keso de bola, five SKUs decreased by as much as 7.8 percent, two SKUs did not change, highest increase was at 8.1 percent,” Nograles said.

She added that a total of six mayonnaise and 19 sandwich spread SKUs kept the increase within five percent; for cheese, half of the SKUs increased by at most five percent while two SKUs increased by 13 percent.

Nograles said 10 SKUs of pasta and macaroni decreased prices, while another 10 did not change prices.

“For spaghetti sauce SKUs, nine either decreased or did not change prices while seven kept the increase within five percent; while for tomato sauce SKUs, five had no change while five kept the increase within five percent,” Nograles said.

On fruit cocktail, Nograles said increases ranged from 1.3 percent to 6.4 percent. For all purpose cream, one SKU decreased while nine are new SKUs.

Based on the mock price guide presented yesterday, the price of ham ranges from P169 to P898.50 depending on size, while fruit cocktail prices range from P57.72 to P298.

Prices of keso de bola range from P210 to P445 depending on size, while the prices of cheese ranges from P47.15 to P420.

The mock price guide also shows that mayonnaise prices range from P24.70 to P245.85, while sandwich spreads have prices from P27 to P263.60.

It also shows that the prices of pasta or spaghetti range from P25.50 to P113; P23 to P124 for elbow macaroni and P36.50 to P123 for salad macaroni. Prices of spaghetti sauce ranges from P23.55 to P103; tomato sauce from P15.50 to P92.25 and all-purpose cream from P36.50 to P59.95.

The DTI said earlier that it conducts price and supply monitoring activities for Noche Buena items during the fourth quarter of the year to guide consumers in buying these products.

The DTI stressed earlier that Noche Buena products are not categorized as Basic Necessities and Prime Commodities under Republic Act 75181, as Amended by RA 10623.