The National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC) will be convened to tackle the price of onions as well as of eggs and make recommendation to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Undersecretary Ruth Castelo of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) also said more requests for price increases have been received by the agency from manufacturers of basic and prime commodities (BNPCs).
Castelo told the Laging Handa public briefing yesterday officials of the agency met with counterparts of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to address supply chain as well as possible interventions that affect prices of onions and eggs.
“We had a three-hour meeting with DA to help them address price issues of onions.
We want to be able to address the supply issue, farmgate price and trading issues and eventually retail price. As NPCC, we will have members agree and resolve to make the recommendations to the President,” Castelo said.
“We will wait for the President to come back so the NPCC can issue a resolution containing the recommendation. NPCC will be convened as soon as DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual returns,” she said.
Both Marcos and Pascual are in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.
Meanwhile, Castelo said the DTI has yet to wrap up its study on the new suggested retail prices (SRP) on BNPCs which the agency has targetted to release this month.
“More requests (for price increase) are coming in, and there has to be more validation on the figures of the pending requests so we have no exact date when the price bulletin will be released,” Castelo.
These include canned sardines, processed milk, coffee, instant noodles, bread, andles and detergent soap for basic commodities and canned meat bath soap and some condiments for prime.
She said manufacturers have cited higher costs of raw material and packaging as well as logistics costs due to high fuel prices that raised their cost of production.
Castelo clarified basic bread, Pinoy Tasty and Pinoy Pandesal, is not affected by higher prices of eggs. Irma Isip
