On the first week of the implementation of the suggested retail prices (SRPs) on 10 agriculture products in all Metro Manila markets, several vendors have been issued with letters of inquiry for violations.
This developed as government is also planning to impose suggested wholesale price to monitor traders’ costing to retailers.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) said price markup from farmgate to retail should not be more than 60 percent, which will determine the wholesale price of a food item for sale to consumers.
At the joint price monitoring conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), DA, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Quezon City local government on Monday in Mega Q Mart last Monday, vendors of chicken in a Quezon City market were questioned for overpricing while a sugar vendor was flagged for not placing price tags and signages.
Vendors were given until yesterday, or 48 hours as prescribed, to answer these letters. Non-compliance with SRPs face penalties of P5,000 to P1,000,000, under the Price Act.
“The effectiveness of the SRP implementation is dependent first on good information campaign and the cooperation among DA, DTI and the DILG with the local government units concerned, since they are the ones who supervise to the market masters in the public markets. For the retailers to comply with the SRP, the market masters must check if the traders entering their markets as well as the retailers are overpricing,” said Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez.
Starting last Monday, various food items were slapped with SRPs per kilogram: pork (pigue/kasim) at P190; chicken (whole, dressed) at P130; raw or brown sugar at P45; refined sugar at P50; cage-cultured bangus at P162; pond-cultured tilapia at P120; imported galunggong at P130; imported garlic at P70; local garlic at P120; and imported red onion at P95.
“This is a call to all traders and retailers in all Metro Manila markets. We now have the suggested retail prices for (these) food commodities. The monitoring and surveillance are a multi-government department approach, to include the local government unit concerned,” said DA Secretary William Dar.
