The Department of Agriculture (DA) said local swine industry stakeholders have agreed to intensify the enforcement of the maximum suggested retail prices (MSRP) on pork.
The DA said in a statement on Sunday the private sector pledged to police its ranks and prevent profiteering at the expense of consumers.
The agency said such a move would effectively stop profiteering. Based on the DA market inspections conducted since early April, less than 10 percent of pork sellers have been complying with the MSRPs.
Under current DA guidelines, the MSRP is set at P300 per kg for freshly slaughtered carcass, P350 per kg for pigue leg or ham and kasim, and P380 per kg for liempo pork belly.
Agriculture Undersecretary for Livestock Dante Palabrica underscored the need to uphold the agreement reached in earlier consultations so that the government would not have to implement more drastic market interventions.
He said the MSRPs have been set to strike a fair balance among the interests of producers, traders, retailers, and consumers, especially in the light of continued inflationary pressures.
Meanwhile, as part of longer-term solutions, Palabrica said the DA will soon start the distribution of around 30,000 gilts to large farms, which will, in turn, repay the government by providing reared pigs for distribution to backyard farmers.
Gilts are female pigs that are yet to give birth but are being prepared for breeding.
Palabrica said the program is part of the rollout of the P1-billion swine repopulation program recently approved by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr.
The DA Chief previously called on the swine industry to back the government’s three-year plan to rebuild, by 2028, the national hog inventory to its pre-African swine fever level of 14 million heads, up from the current estimate of about 8 million.
