Iloilo City, April 6 - The Department of Agriculture (DA) encourages various sectors in Western Visayas to be vigilant on prices of basic and prime commodities, particularly agricultural products.
"Let us continue monitoring prices because the reports that we gather will give us an idea about what interventions to give to our farmers," DA Regional Technical Director for Policy, Planning, Research and Support Services Joyce Wendam said during last week’s conference on the enforcement of Republic Act 7581 or the Price Act.
The gathering was for the price control or monitoring in-charge and staff of different attached agencies of the DA, as well as of the local government unit. There were also participants from non-government organizations and the private sector in order to check if the price ceiling set by the DA, Quezon City on chicken and refined sugar is within reasonable price for the locality.
Suggested retail price (SRP) for fully dressed whole chicken is P125 per kilogram, while refined white sugar is P52 per kilogram.
The DA wants to know if prices are indeed affected by the El Niño phenomenon, despite its being mildly felt in some provinces, like Aklan and northern part of Antique.
DA’s monitoring found out that in Iloilo, prices of chicken and sugar are lower compared to the SRP identified by their main office in Metro Manila.
Price in wet markets in the city reaches only up to P120 per kilogram of whole dressed chicken, while price in supermarkets at certain malls is only around P105 per kilogram.
Sugar prices vary, with some reaching P56 per kilogram, especially during the monitoring from January to February 2010 when milled price of sugar has increased.
"As our monitoring revealed, there are already many (positive) improvements as to the implementation of the Price Act, so we urge everyone to continue helping us," Wendam said.
Meanwhile, participants in the conference agreed to recommend to the DA, Quezon City indicative prices for chicken and sugar instead of the SRP as there is no cause for concern in Region VI regarding undue price increases resulting from a crisis or emergency situation. (PNA) /MP
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