Fish prices seen to rise 30% during Holy Week

MANILA, Philippines, April 13 ------ The Department of Agriculture (DA) expects the retail price of fish to increase between 15 to 30 percent with the expected drop in the consumption of pork during the Holy Week. At a press conference, Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa gave assurance of enough fish supply with the start of Holy Week on April 14. "We will closely monitor the market if there will be unreasonable increases,” he added. 

De Mesa noted that the retail price of galunggong or round scad ranged between P200 and P340 per kilo. Based also on monitoring of the DA in Metro Manila markets, the retail price of milkfish ranged between P150 and P250 per kilo; tilapia, between P120 and P180 per kilo; Indian mackerel, between P240 and P400 per kilo; sardines, between P100 and P220 per kilo; squid, between P360 and P480 per kilo and yellowfin tuna, between P190 and P360 per kilo. 

Compliance with the P45 maximum suggested retail price (SRP) for imported rice is now at 50 percent, according to De Mesa. He said that during the inspection of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. at Mega Q-Mart in Quezon City, some retailers were even selling grains lower than the P45 per kilo max SRP but some vendors still failed to comply. 

Based on the monitoring of the DA in Metro Manila markets, the retail price of imported special rice ranged between P55 and P60 per kilo; imported premium rice, between P44 and P55 per kilo; imported well-milled rice, P43 and P46 per kilo and imported regular milled rice, between P33 and P45 per kilo. De Mesa said that as of March 27, total rice imports totaled 800,000 metric tons. At the same time, De Mesa said that Tiu Laurel wants to maintain the P45 per kilo max SRP so that the farmgate price will not suffer with the ongoing harvest. 

Source: philstar.com