DA allays fears of over P500/kilo pork, P300/kilo chicken due to Middle East crisis

The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Saturday clarified that the projection that retail prices of pork and chicken could spike to over P500 per kilo and P300 per kilo, respectively, was merely a projection for a “worst-case scenario” if the escalating Middle East tensions causing a global oil price shock would be prolonged.

“We are not expecting na aabot sa ganu'n (it will reach that situation),” DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said at a news forum in Quezon City.

The DA official was referring to the agency’s projection, made during a Senate hearing last Tuesday, that pork could hit P580 per kilo and chicken could go up to P349 per kilo if the price of crude oil hits $200 per barrel and the war in the Middle East persists until August.

De Mesa said that the “worst-case scenario” projection assumes the government will not intervene.

“Ngayon naman punong-puno ang cold storages ng both local at imported na karne,” he said.

(As of now, the cold storages are packed with both local and imported meat.)

In an interview on Super Radyo dzBB earlier on Saturday, the DA official also clarified that the projection was based on purely local production and did not take into account the supply of imported meat.

During the forum, de Mesa said the DA is eyeing to start distribution of cash aid, amounting to P2,325 to 4.175 million farmers and fisherfolk, by April 6 as the agency expects that the P10-billion Presidential Assistance to Farmers and Fisherfolk (PAFF) Program will be released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) by April 2.

Apart from the PAFF, the Agriculture Department is also tapping its P1 billion quick response fund (QRF) which was activated following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s declaration of a state of national energy emergency.

De Mesa said the QRF will be used to procure farm inputs and fertilizers to help farmers cope with rising fertilizer prices due to the fuel crisis. —KG, GMA Integrated News