THE Department of Trade and Industry in Davao Region (DTI-Davao) said they are expecting an increase in prices for Noche Buena food items as the holiday season approaches.
Jennifer Glimada, DTI-Davao Price Monitoring Focal Person, said on November 14 that DTI is working on keeping prices within a 10 percent increase from its previous prices based on DTI’s price guide. As of now, an updated price guide has not yet been released.
“Sa among monitoring, naa na mga items na nag icnrease pero naa lang siya sa 5 percent, 6.5 percent increase gikan sa iyang previous na price guide (Based on our latest monitoring, there are some items that have increase 5 to 6.5 percent from their previous prices),” Glimada said during an interview with the Davao City Disaster Radio.
According to her, the manufacturers are in charge of adjusting the prices which will be given to the product distributors as a price guide. Glimada said since Noche Buena items are seasonal, they do not have suggested retail prices (SRP).
She added that DTI-Davao will monitor prices of the seasonal Noche Buena items to make sure these are not unreasonably high.
Last month, Deolly Roque, chief of DTI-Davao Regional Consumer Protection Division said the price guide for Noche Buena items may be released soon.
As of November 2021, ham and keso de bola were priced at P158 - P204 and P285 - P410 per 500 grams respectively.
Five hundred grams of spaghetti cost P54.50 - P72 while a kilo of spaghetti sauce and tomato sauce was P68.25 - P76.25 and P62 - P63.50 respectively.
Meanwhile, the prices of other products belonging to basic and prime commodities are still within the latest SRP of DTI. Glimada said there is still no advice if SRP prices would increase soon.
“Unta dili na (mag increase) pero sa karon, wala pa gyod mi update (We do not have any updates as of now but we hope it will not increase further),” she said.
Glimada said the DTI-Davao monitors SRPs of big establishments with direct connection to DTI distributors, such as popular supermarkets and grocery chains.
DTI-Davao also does regular monitoring of price tags and compliance with product standards of other establishments. ICM