THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has observed an increase in prices of some agricultural commodities due to the restricted movement of supplies in some areas.
The DA and the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-IED) reiterated calls to local government units to allow unhampered passage of food and agricultural commodities and personnel to, from and through their localities.
The DA cited a new resolution passed by the IATF-IED last week further amending government strategies in managing the COVID-19 situation.
DA Secretary William Dar said the country still has enough supply of food, specifically rice and other basic commodities for the year.
“Our actual monitoring and projections in production show that we have enough; we just need to move the supplies from their origins to areas where they are most needed,” Dar said.
The DA has been issuing food passes to ease the checkpoint procedures both for the viajeros and the checkpoint personnel. To date, it has issued around 20,000 food passes to traders and truckers nationwide, apart from coordinating with the Department of Interior and Local Government to cascade its action points from the national level down to the barangays.
Pork demand
Meanwhile, a report from the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) dated March 17, 2020 showed the Philippines may see a drop in pork production but an increase in poultry and beef production this year.
The USDA said the drop in pork production is due to the African swine fever (ASF) which continues to spread throughout the country against the expected recovery of demand.
The USDA said the Philippines’ broiler chicken production is forecast to surge by 10 percent this year as raisers continue to ramp up production to augment the decline in pork production from ASF.
Citing industry reports, the agency said there are ample stocks of imported and local chicken in cold storage facilities due to slowdown in demand related to COVID-19, particularly by the fast food chains and restaurants.
The agency said the confirmation of H5N6 highly pathogenic avian influenza on a quail farm in Nueva Ecija is not expected to have a significant impact on the poultry sector.
The USDA said local beef production can increase marginally this year due to more attractive farm gate prices at P15 to 20 per kilogram compared to the last quarter of 2019 and better demand.
However, limited pasturelands and a lack of new breeding animals will be a constraint on further growth especially with the delays in trade caused by increased COVID-19 restrictions and the expected pressure on local beef prices as over half of the beef supply is imported.
