Traders blamed for hike in meat prices

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – Traders are being blamed for the spike in prices of pork and other meat products.

Prices of meat products in the wet market remain the same despite the P20 reduction in live weight price, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said Monday.

The 60-day price ceiling on pork and chicken products in Metro Manila, as stipulated in Executive Order 124 issued by President Rodrigo Duterte, took effect Monday.

EO 124 sets mandated prices of P270 per kilo for kasim (pork shoulder), P300 for liempo (pork belly), and P160 for a kilo of chicken, as prices of such commodities continue to increase.

Lacson said that vendors earlier complained that commercial and backyard hog raisers were manipulating the price.

Obviously, it was not, he said, stressing that live weight per kilo of pork even dropped by P20.

“Traders are always the one making money,” he said.

Provincial Veterinarian Dr. Renante Decena said that back yard hog raisers in Negros Occidental are the biggest suppliers of pork meat products in Metro Manila.

The Alliance of Hog Raisers Associations of Negros Occidental expressed its vehement opposition to plans of the national government to import pork, Decena said.

Pork prices increased as the local hog industry battles the spread of African swine fever, which has disrupted the operations of hog farms in Batangas, Bulacan and nearby provinces, prompting hog raisers in the Visayas and Mindanao to supply Metro Manila.