MANILA -- The Agriculture department implemented Sunday the suggested price bands for sugar, pork and chicken to keep the retail costs of these commodities stable, especially during the holiday season.

Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary Salvador Salacup said the price band is a guide to stakeholders from the farmers, travelers, slaughterhouse operators, meat dealers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers.

“This (price band) is the most reasonable price level of the respective commodities for a given period,” he said.

The suggested retail prices (SRP) for the three commodities are: for refined sugar — P41 to P43 a kilo; whole dressed chicken — P135 to P145 a kilo; pork kasim (shoulder) — P160 to P165 a kilo; and pork liempo (belly) — P170 to P175 a kilo.

Salacup said these SRPs were drawn up in consultation with hog and chicken stakeholders in a meeting with agriculture officials at the DA central office last November 26.

“The DA’s Agricultural Marketing Assistance Service (Amas), Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), and the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) will regularly make the rounds of retail outlets every morning to ensure that sellers follow the SRPs,” he said.

“We will conduct a weekly review to find out whether we should lower or raise the SRPs or whether it is already time to lift them considering several factors affecting the volatility of agricultural commodity prices,” he added.

Salacup said these review teams are composed of representatives from BAS, Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), Amas, DTI, the livestock and poultry producers, meat dealers, retailers and market administrators and consumer groups.

The Agriculture agency has also assured the public that adequate imports of pork and chicken will be arriving this month up to end of January 2010.

All of these foreign-sourced augmentation action plans were derived from extensive discussions with pork and chicken major stakeholders as early as August 2009, he said.

Salacup said that 8,000 metric tons (mt) of chicken will arrive starting this weekend up to January 31, 2010 and another 8,000 mt of pork are coming from the United States, Canada and other Asian sources in December.

“These import volumes were approved by the private sector, which themselves saw the need to import the commodities to ensure enough supply this Christmas season,” said Salacup.

Salacup earlier said the DA has been carrying out a two-pronged approach involving the procurement of pork and chicken from both domestic and overseas sources to ensure the stable supply of these commodities in Metro Manila during the holiday season and the first quarter of 2010.

He said the DA had implemented a similar approach by suggesting a reference price band for pork before the onset of the Christmas season last year -- when retail prices had shot up to as high as P180 to P190 per kilo of choice cuts -- a move that was welcomed by major stakeholders, particularly the hog producers, wholesalers and retailers of the commodity.

Retail prices eventually stabilized at P155 to P170 per kilo. (PNA/Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)