Prices of meat in the markets of Negros Occidental have significantly increased this week.
The prevailing market price of livestock and poultry weekly monitoring report of the Provincial Veterinary Office, showed that prices of beef increased by P2.34 per kilogram, from P274.45/kg on January 18 to P276.79/kg on January 25.
Prices of pork also increased by P8.64/kg, from P204.76/kg to P213.40/kg during the period.
Carabeef increased by P2.05/kg from P264.40/kg to P266.45/kg, while the price of chevon increased by P8.06/kg, from P329.33/kg to P337.39/kg.
The price for broiler chicken increased by P16.32/kg, from P159.35/kg to P175.67, while the price for native chicken remained the same at P253.24/kg.
Prices for eggs also slightly increased. They are priced at P6.64 (small), P7.31 (medium), P7.98 (large), and P8.59 (extra large), and P12.59 (salted) per piece.
In Bacolod City, the average price of carabeef is P250/kg, beef – P255/kg, pork – P245/kg, broiler chicken – P185/kg, native chicken – P250/kg, and eggs at P7 (small), P7.50 (medium), P8 (large), P8.50 (extra large), and P12.50 (salted) per piece.
Among the factors for the price increase were the huge demand for pork in Luzon and the shipment of meat to some parts of the Visayas, Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena explained.
He said that 6,000 heads of liveweight were shipped out to Luzon and other parts in the Visayas in the last three weeks.
The supply in the province has slowed down due to the huge demand last December and early January. But Decena assured that “we have a stable supply.”
Secretary Karlo Nograles, Zero Hunger Task Force head, said the national government is looking to put a cap on the prices since the country is still in a state of a public health emergency.
“But right now, we don’t want to disrupt the market forces…but the first order of the day is to stabilize the supply of pork,” he said.
He also said that they are monitoring the meat prices and “it should not go up so high.”
“We are monitoring price manipulation, unscrupulous traders, people who try to manipulate the prices and take advantage of this. We have laws against price manipulation, hoarding, and all of this artificial and fake manipulation of prices,” he said.*