THE Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) of Negros Occidental reported that average prices of meat products, especially pork and chicken, in the province are still high for at least three consecutive weeks now.
As of February 8 monitoring of the PVO, per kilogram of pork now costs P225.10, which is P20.34 higher compared to P204.76 per kilo last week.
For chicken, the prevailing average price per kilo is P182.96. The amount is P23.51 higher compared to previous week's cost of P159.35 per kilo.
The PVO also noted an increase of P3.43 per kilo in the price of carabeef (carabao meat). From P264.40 per kilo, the prevailing price is P267.83 per kilo.
For beef, the prevailing average price is P280.95 from the previous P274.45 or an increase of P6.50 per kilogram.
About P8 per kilo increase in the price of chevon (goat meat) was noted. From P329.33 per kilo last week, it went up to P337.39 per kilogram this week.
For eggs, the increase ranges from P0.16 to P0.20 per piece depending on sizes.
Each piece of egg now costs P6.66, P7.32, P8 and P8.31 for small, medium, large and extra large sizes, respectively.
Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena said local meat vendors still have previous orders with high live weight price which affected current average prices of the products in the market.
"Then, some backyard raisers hold on to their waiting for price increase as the liveweight price has now lowered to P125 to P150," he added.
This is the third week that PVO noted a significant increase in the prices of meat products in the province.
The provincial veterinarian earlier attributed the upward movement in the prices of meat products particularly chicken and pork to current higher cost of all agricultural commodities.
The increase in the price of pork is relative to the African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak in Luzon, he had said.