ANTIQUE – Members of the Sibalom Livestock and Poultry-raisers Association (SILPRA) are pushing for an increase in the prevailing liveweight price of hogs to improve their income.
SILPRA president Elma Peña said the price has not moved since the start of the lean months in August.
“The price of the liveweight hog during the months of June to July was still at P140 per kilogram, but it went down to P120 starting last August,” she said.
With the high demand for hogs in Luzon at the start of the “ber” months, the opening of the restaurants and the resumption of classes, hog raisers in Antique said they were also expecting the buying price for their products to go up.
She said that the SILPRA, which has 570 members not only from Sibalom but also from other neighboring towns, proposes that the old liveweight rate of P140 per kilogram be restored or even increased further.
“If the provincial price coordinating council could meet, then we could have an opportunity to dialogue with the traders or their middlemen so that we could come up with an agreeable price,” she said.
The provincial price coordinating council is being chaired by Gov. Rhodora Cadiao, with the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Agriculture, civil society organizations, and stakeholders among the members.
Peña further alleged that the buying price of hogs is being monopolized by a certain shipper to Metro Manila at the Iloilo Port, with middlemen being deployed in Antique, particularly at the Sibalom Livestock, to offer a lower liveweight price.
She said that since hog raisers in Antique still need to transport their liveweight hogs to the Iloilo Port in Iloilo City for Metro Manila, they are left with no choice but to accept the low buying price being offered to them. (PNA)/PN
