IT'S five days to go before Holy Week and vendors of pork meat and fish at the local markets are expecting prices of these agricultural products to increase.
In a monitoring conducted in Agdao public market -- one of the biggest public markets in Davao City -- it was learned that some prices of fish went up by P10-P30 pesos since Saturday last week.
On the other hand, pork meat prices also showed an upward trend following the low supply of hog. Pork meat in local markets at present costs P130 to P140.
Amy Gadia and Henna Gonzaga, pork meat vendors, are one into saying that prices of pork meat per kilo rise by P5 to P20 since last week.
"Ini-expect ng mga tao na mababa ang presyo ng pork pag Holy Week kasi karamihan isda ang kinakain, pero hindi naman, tumaas ngayon ang presyo ng baboy per kilo kasi konti lang ang supply," Gadia said.
Gonzaga, who gets her meat stocks from the Cecilia Farms, said hog supply during Holy Week decreases because some swine are delivered and brought to Manila.
Meanwhile, Annielyn Alvarado, a fish vendor for seven years at the same public market, told Sun.Star that fish prices went up depending on its kind.
"Ang bangus, since last week pa tumaas, dati P100 per kilo ang bigay namin, pero ngayon P110 per kilo na," Alvarado said adding that some kinds of fish like the Matambaka showed a very significant increase in its price per kilo from P70 to P90 at present.
Alvarado said based on her experience as a fish vendor for several years now, fish usually gets expensive during Holy Week.
But, in a separate interview, Fortunata Aprosta, also a fish vendor, said prices of fishes locally called as Caraballas, Tamban, and Moro-Moro, went down by P10 pesos.
She said supply of these kinds of fish is very good since last week.
Prices of Tamban, Moro-moro, and Caraballas are now pegged at P30, P40, and P70 per kilo, respectively.
