Market defies DA order in Soccsksargen controlling pork prices

KORONADAL CITY—The market has defied a standing order by the Department of Agriculture (DA) in the Soccsksargen region or Region 12 that set prices of pork.

DA regional director Arlan Mangelen issued Special Order No. 06 series of 2021 on January 28 in the wake of soaring prices of pork, pegging the price of liempo at P192 and kasim at P188, way below the prevailing prices in the market.

The price of premium pork in the hog-producing region has soared by as much as 33 percent due to stiff competition between local meat vendors and traders from Visayas and Luzon for the supply of pigs.

The purchase of pigs for transport to the Visayas and Metro Manila have dramatically increased in the last several weeks, driving an increase in farm-gate prices.

An Inquirer monitoring of the pork prices in this city, which is the regional seat, in the past few days reported that the premium belly part or liempo ranged from P299 to P320 per kilo at a major supermarket and meat shop, and P280 in the talipapa or roadside stalls.

In December, the price of liempo in the talipapa was just P190 per kilo.

The January 28 monitoring of DA’s Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service showed the price of liempo was only P240 per kilo and P188 for kasim.

In General Santos City, the region’s economic hub, prices of pork range from P260 to P300 per kilo.

Mangelen said that local hog raisers prefer to ship their products outside the region due to better prices, causing tight supply.

President Rodrigo Duterte has issued an executive order imposing a 60-day price ceiling on pork and chicken products in Metro Manila.

Myrna Habacon, regional director of the National Meat Inspection Service, admitted that swine supply in the region has become tighter as producers cutback on volume.

“Due to the presence of ASF in some parts of the country, commercial hog raisers in Region 12, particularly in South Cotabato and General Santos City, engaged in conservative swine production for fear the highly contagious disease will infect their farms,” she told Inquirer on the phone.

Habacon said the tighter pork supply in Soccsksargen was also due to the continuing shipment of live hogs to Luzon and the Visayas.

In Cagayan de Oro City, DA-10 regional technical director for operations Carlota Madriaga said they have dialogued with hog producers and determined that there is no spike in their cost of production.

As such, there is no basis for traders to hike their prices, she said.

Madriaga earlier branded as only “artificial” the surge in pork prices in northern Mindanao, attributing it to competition for tight supply between local meat vendors and traders bringing hog supply to the Visayas and Luzon.

The region is supposedly 600-percent pork sufficient, but the price of the meat there is sold from P280 per kilo, way higher than the price set by government for Metro Manila during the price-freeze period.

The ASF scare has also affected the production volume set by large high raisers, worried that the disease may spread to their farms. With reports from Jigger J. Jerusalem