PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has ordered concerned Department of Agriculture (DA) officials to determine the reason behind the surge in the prices of eggs despite enough supply in the market.

In a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, January 24, 2023, Marcos instructed DA Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban to meet with egg producers and traders to know why prices of chicken eggs have surged in the recent weeks, noting the widening gap between farm gate and retail prices, benefiting mainly the traders.

“We determined that the increase in the price of eggs is not commensurate to the increase in production cost,” he said.

“So we will have to have a look to see how to control that because we cannot explain almost one-half of the profit margin that we are seeing. We cannot attribute it to cost,” he added.

As of January 13, the DA, which is headed by Marcos, said that the price watch for retail of medium-sized eggs is at P9 to P6.60 each, much higher than the P6.90 per piece in December 2022.

The DA said the retail price of eggs should just be between P7 to P7.50 each given its farm gate price of eggs, which is pegged at P6.97 per piece.

Initially, the DA said it has reconvened the Price and Volume Watch Committee and Advisory Groups for Livestock and Poultry to closely watch the prices of eggs across the country in order to address the situation.

DA Assistant Secretary Kristine Evangelista said the agency is eliminating “certain layers of traders” to bring down prices of chicken eggs.

“We are coordinating with the [Philippine] Egg Board also to see the supply situation, and if there are bottlenecks. Right now, what we are doing also is to eliminate certain layers of traders because that will also help bring down the price,” she said in a press conference.

“Hopefully, mas maganda ang production also of the eggs. There are some challenges that our egg producers are faced with that are now being addressed by our Bureau of Animal Industry,” she added. (SunStar Philippines)