Manufacturers seek price hike for canned sardines

MODEST FARE There are 16 product lines of canned sardines currently covered by the Department of Trade and Industry’s SRP (suggested retail price) list. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — Manufacturers of canned sardines have asked the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to increase the suggested retail price (SRP) of their products, saying they were concerned another spike in fuel cost brought about by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would raise their operating expenses.

“We understand that the DTI needs to do a balancing act for both the manufacturers and the consumers. However, we are concerned that another round of fuel price hikes would drive up production costs by 3.5 percent,” said Canned Sardines Association of the Philippines (CSAP) executive director Francisco Buencamino.

He said CSAP would meet with DTI officials on Friday to present their petition for a price increase.

There are 16 product lines of canned sardines covered by the DTI’s SRP list. While most of them retained their prices in the latest revision of the SRP list last Jan. 27, retail prices of six had already risen from the last SRP release in August 2021.

The increase among the six products ranged from 60 centavos to a little more than P1. For example, the SRP of a 155-gram Saba Philippines Sardines in Metro Manila increased by P1.25 to P17.25 last January from P16 in August last year.

Three months away

Early this week, the DTI said there was no reason for the public to panic as any effect on local prices of the Russia-Ukraine conflict would be felt only after three months.

At the Laging Handa briefing last Monday, Trade Undersecretary Ruth Castelo said they would not yet release an updated SRP bulletin to reflect the impact of rising fuel prices on manufacturers of basic commodities.

“We want to assure the public that the prices of basic goods, whether we like it or not, will be affected but it is not immediate. We are looking at the next three months before the current situation in Europe will affect consumer prices in the country,” she said.

Canned sardines are considered a staple among low-income earners as these provide a cheap source of protein.

Zamboanga City is known as the “Sardine Capital of the Philippines” because it hosts 11 canning factories that supply 85 percent of the canned sardines found in supermarket shelves and “sari-sari” stores across the country with an annual production worth P1.5 billion.

The Southern Philippines Fishing Association Inc. (Sophil) estimated the monthly canned sardines consumption of Filipinos at 160 million cans a month. Local manufacturers also export about 500,000 cases (each containing 100 cans) monthly.

How about bread?

Other manufacturing groups are expected to petition the government for an increase in prices, especially with the unabated rise in fuel prices since January this year.

Bread prices, however, are expected to remain unchanged for the whole of March as the group of manufacturers behind Pinoy Tasty and Pinoy Pandesal—the only bread products covered by DTI’s SRP bulletin—early this week said that they have enough flour stocks for at least two weeks to a month.

However, what happens beyond that remains to be seen, according to Johnlu Koa, founder and president of the Philippine Baking Industry Group (PhilBaking), as Russia and Ukraine, which both account for nearly a third of the global supply of wheat, spiral deeper into war.

Wheat is needed to make flour, which is then used to make bread. Koa said flour millers, which he said had bought enough wheat in advance to cover up to May, have not yet told bread makers if there would be any price adjustment.

“So far, we have not received any guidance or indication that they will increase [the price of flour], but everybody who watches the TV and [wheat prices in the futures market] will know it’s just a matter of time,” Koa, who is also the founder and chief executive of the French Baker chain, told the Inquirer in a phone interview.

Rivals agree on recipe

PhilBaking was formed more than a decade ago by competing bread manufacturers who agreed to use the same recipe for a specific brand of bread meant for the masses.

This resulted in two common brands, Pinoy Tasty and Pinoy Pandesal, which are produced and sold at the same low price by 10 different manufacturers, including market leader Gardenia.

The SRP of Pinoy Tasty and Pinoy Pandesal had stayed the same since 2016, before rising last February largely because of global supply constraints in wheat. The retail price of a 450-gram Pinoy Tasty went up to P38.50 from P35, while a 250-g Pinoy Pandesal with 10 pieces increased to P23.50 from P21.50.

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