Rice is enough but meat prices rise

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Malacanang yesterday assured the current stock of rice in the country is enough to sustain its needs.

This developed as a consumer group noted rising prices of chicken and meat in the market amid clamor for the suspension of their importation.

The Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), announced over the weekend that it was cancelling the importation of 300,000 metric tons of rice from Vietnam.

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Under a best scenario, the country would have an ending stock of 100 days, while the worst case scenario would have a lower but still a comfortable stock of 78 days at the end of the year..

Laban Konsyumer Inc. (LKI), meanwhile, cired data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) which showed prevailing retail prices of pork kasim and liempo are now at P260 to P280 per kg while whole chicken retail prices are at P150 per kg.

From a month ago , the prevailing prices of pork were P250 to P260 per kg and chicken at P130 per kg.

Current suggested retail prices (SRP) are P190 per kg for pork products and P130 per kg for chicken.

“Even though on paper there is no more price freeze, we feel these (meat producers) should not cave into the pandemic of profiteering and should take into consideration the hardships that all consumers are experiencing now. Whether there is a market pressure to adjust SRP higher due to current demand and supply should be thoroughly studied,” said Vic Dimagiba, LKI president.

The country is poised to experience an oversupply of chicken meat and shortage of pork products at the end of the year.

As of last April, the Department of Agriculture said that by the end of December, chicken supply is good for 253 days but pork supply will not be enough for 43 days. (J Montemayor and J Macapagal)

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