CONSUMERS still reeling from the soaring prices of basic commodities need to tighten their belts even more after the Department of Agriculture (DA-7) found out in a price monitoring operation that the prices of several poultry products and vegetables have also spiked.
Melquiades Ibarra, information officer of the DA-7, said that the increase is the result of a high inflation rate, soaring production cost and the high price of gasoline.
The DA-7 has conducted their price monitoring at the Carbon Public Market and Pasil in Cebu City and in Tabunok Public Market in Talisay City.
“The price of pork and chicken meat has increased to P10 per kilo, while beef has decreased,” Ibarra said.
Ibarra said that based on their Sept. 5 monitoring, pork belly is now sold at P190 to P220 per kilo from only P190 in the previous weeks, while a whole chicken is now worth P190 from P150-P160.
Beef however, has decreased from P250 per kilo to P210–P230 per kilo.
Ibarra, however, clarified that consumers need not panic since the region has enough supply of poultry products, though it has slightly fluctuated due to increase in demand.
Supply he said, can still last until December because the region is not dependent on local production.
“We are also importing supplies from other countries,” he added.
The price of medium size eggs remained at P5.50 to P6 per piece.
Meanwhile, DA-7 also noticed an increase in the prices of some vegetable products.
For instance, ampalaya is now sold at P90 to P100 per kilo from only P90 in the previous weeks, while string beans are sold at P50 to P65 per kilo from P40-P50.
Prices of eggplants and tomatoes however, decreased from P70 to P60 per kilo and P60-P70 to P50-P60 per kilo, respectively.
Cabbage has remained at P50-P60 per kilo as well as carrots at P70-P80.
According to Ibarra, vegetable products in the region come from the southern Cebu town of Dalaguete and from Mindanao.