Hog-raisers from this province are seeking the Provincial Veterinary (ProVet) Office to intervene amid the low buying price pegged by traders on live animals.

Engineer Vicente Lagunday, Small and Medium Enterprise Development (SMED) Council chair in Antique province, himself a hog-raiser, said in an interview Thursday that they are requesting the ProVet, which is under the Department of Agriculture (DA), to set a consultative meeting with local traders, growers, and consumers so that they could fix the selling and buying price of hogs.

“The selling price of pork in the market now has gone (up) to PHP220 but the farm gate price of the live weight animals had remained at PHP120 per kilo,” he said.

He said that it seemed the traders are making a big margin of PHP100 per kilo when they buy the live weight animal and sell it to the market as pork. “The farm gate price should have to be adjusted,” he added.

He said consumers should also be involved as they are affected by the selling price in the market.

He said without the Suggested Retail Price (SRP), just like on the basic commodities under the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), hog-raisers are at a disadvantage together with the consumers buying the overpriced pork.

“Supposedly, the pork selling price in the market should only be PHP200 per kilogram,” he said.

Meanwhile, ProVet Dr. Florencio Macuja, in a separate interview, said they do not have control over the local traders’ buying price of hogs because the negotiation is between the local traders and the hog-raisers.

“If the hog-raisers are in a hurry to dispose of their swine then the tendency is they would agree with the local traders’ buying price,” he said.

He added the current selling price of pork in the market is at PHP220 per kilogram while the farm gate price is at PHP120 per kilogram.

“The farm gate price is the same with that for the hogs butchered and sold in the public markets here and those being transported to Metro Manila,” he said. (PNA)

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