June 2, 2004

Philippine Poultry Farmers Seek Retail Price Ceiling

Philippine poultry farmers have asked the Department of Agriculture to establish a price ceiling for local chickens to help stabilize domestic prices, an industry official said Tuesday.
 
Gregorio San Diego, president of the United Broilers Association of the Philippines, said the group made the request during a meeting Monday with agriculture officials.
 
Agriculture officials said they would bring up the issue with the Department of Trade and Industry's National Price Coordinating Council and to conduct a consultation process on the issue, San Diego said.
 
He said establishing a price ceiling on chicken prices at the retail level will help deter sharp increases in the retail market and limit the need for chicken imports.
 
Following the increase of retail chicken prices to PHP120/kg last month from PHP90-PHP95/kg the previous month due to tight supply, the Department of Agriculture authorized last week the entry of 5 million kgs of chickens for arrival between July and August. Importers have already subscribed to around 3.5 million kgs, Agriculture Undersecretary Arthur Yap said.
 
But even before the imports could arrive, newspaper reports of the impending chicken arrivals caused farmgate prices to fall to PHP54-PHP55/kg Tuesday from PHP60-PHP61/kg Monday, San Diego said.
 
But even with the downward trend in farmgate prices, retail prices have remained high, San Diego said.
 
"Retail prices are sensitive only to the upward trend," San Diego told Dow Jones Newswires.
 
However, retail prices don't usually reflect a softening of prices at the farmgate level, he said.
 
Only the establishment of a price ceiling will help deter erratic movements in prices, he added.