THE PRICES of meat and poultry products during the holiday season in Davao Region will remain stable due to sufficient supply.
Alexander Sibuan, marketing specialist of the Department of Agriculture-Davao (DA-Davao) Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division, said this will be expected by the consumers until the end of the holiday’s festivities.
“The meat prices since the previous months remained stable. So far, we have not observed any price hike,” he said.
Also, Dr. Karl Lawrence Pineda, livestock banner program agriculturist II of DA-Davao, said the meat and poultry production in farms is sufficient to meet the demands during the holiday season.
“We have (meat and poultry) supply in our farms. Although, we have no surplus. Our farms right now have produced just enough to cater to the demand during the holiday season,” he said.
“Recently, we have met with the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) officials. It said the supply in the cold storage is enough. According to NMIS, there is no imported meat because importers have already acquired enough meat in October and November,” he added.
When asked about the recent bird flu in other countries, Pineda said the local poultry production is not affected by the said disease.
“So far, based on our monitoring, the supply of our chicken is sufficient,” he said.
Pineda added that there are no sporadic outbreaks of the African swine fever virus in Davao Region and the farmers are slowly recuperating from their losses.
“Our monitoring and surveillance are continuous. We have a team from our regulatory division that oversees areas recently hit by ASF outbreaks and sporadic outbreaks, “ he said. (JDC)