The city government here has formed a working committee that will look for ways to make pork prices amenable to both the sellers and consumers.

This, after the city government traced the increased prices of pork products to the prohibitive farm gate price of hogs, Mayor Nelson Legacion said in an interview on Tuesday.

He said the city government will also look at the possibility of restricting traders from other regions from buying hogs here, which meat vendors identified as one of the reasons for the dwindling local supply, aside from the still unresolved cases of African swine fever (ASF).

The local pork industry started experiencing dwindling supply in the last quarter of 2020.

“Perhaps, it can be done thru legislation or issuance of an executive order,” Legacion said about the plan to restrict big-time hog buyers from other regions from entering the city.

He noted that buyers from other places pay PHP190 to PHP200 per hog, which is much higher than the PHP160 to PHP170 being offered by the local vendors.

Conrado Levina, president of the Chicken and Meat Vendors’ Association at the Naga City People’s Mall (NCPM), said his group is compelled to equal the amount being offered by outsiders so that they can get the product, which results in increased prices.

In a separate interview, an NCPM stallholder said hog buyers from other regions even offer a PHP500 finder’s fee to “spotters” or middlemen who could help them find hogs in the barangays.

She said local meat vendors like her can only afford to pay the spotters with PHP100 per head.

NCPM manager Ramon Florendo, who is also the head of the Market Enterprise and Promotions Office (MEPO), said only around 50 percent of the total number of meat vendors at the public market are operating regularly.

To date, the working committee, which is composed of Regional Technical director Alex Templonuevo of the National Meat Inspection Service, Dr. Adelina Losa of the Department of Agriculture, Dr. Esperanza Libunao of Consumers Action Group, Levina, and City Councilor Jose Perez, is still determining the prices of pork and pork products. (PNA)