DA studies cost of egg production

The Department of Agriculture announced over the weekend that it would still assess whether the upward trend in egg pricing will continue.

Additionally, DA stated that the government would implement a “calibrated” importation of onions to protect nearby farmers during the harvest.

DA Assistant Secretary Kristine Evangelista said during the Saturday News Forum that the DA needs to reexamine the cost of egg production to decide whether the price will continue to rise.

This is after the Philippine Egg Board Association mentioned that the country’s egg production has decreased due to breeders’ increased operational costs due to hatchling and chicken pellet prices.

“To can determine if the price of eggs will continue to increase, we have to look into again if the cost of production is the root cause,” Evangelista said.

Calibrated onion importation

Evangelista said in the same briefing that the Bureau of Plant Industry, a bureau under DA, took the farmers into consideration regarding the ‘calibrated’ onion importation, which is expected to be delivered to the country this month.

“About what you mentioned regarding the onion importation, the Bureau of Plant Industry also considered the high-value crop harvest that we expect from our farmers,” Evangelista said in Filipino.

“It’s a bureau, and our unit is in charge of that certain commodity.”

While the farmgate price of onions has gone down to P250 per kilo, the retail prices of onions based on DA’s daily monitoring of 13 markets in Metro Manila stood at P400 to P550.

Evangelista explained the prices remained high considering the cost structure of the onions.

She added that is the production cost since they talked to the farmers to find out how much it costs to produce onions.

“So a calibrated importation is something (the government) had to look into. As of now, we are waiting for reports on how many applied and if you noticed there is a cut-off for our import unlike before,” Evangelista added.