BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
Meat prices in Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City, registered an increase of P2 to P16 per kilo as of Monday, Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena confirmed yesterday.
Carabao meat is now sold at P266.45 per kilo, or an increase of at least P2 from its price before of P264.40 a kilo. Beef is now sold at P276.79 from P274.45 per kilo last month, or an increase of P2.34, Decena said.
Both pork and chevron, or goat meat, increased by at least P8, as of Monday, with pork now sold at P213.40 from P204.76 per kilo and chevron costing P337 from P329 per kilo, he said.
Decena added that the biggest increase was noted in the price of broiled chicken, with maximum selling price of P175 per kilo from P159 before, or a difference of P16.32, while the price of native chicken remained stable at P253.24 per kilo.
Aside from meat, the prices of eggs also increased while the cost of salted eggs was less, PVO records show.
Small eggs are now sold at P6.54 from P6.50, medium eggs – P7.31 from P7.13, large eggs – P7.98 from P7.81, and extra large eggs – P8.59 from P8.43. Salted eggs cost P12.59 each from P12.68.
Decena said the price increase is not due to the floods that affected several areas in the province in the first two weeks of this month.
He said that some animal raisers slowed down production last year due to the low price and only came back recently, and meat supply in December and the first weeks of January is low because of the recent holidays.
Decena also said they hope that the prices of meat and eggs will decrease next month.*
