Malacañang on Wednesday announced that the government would convoke a food security summit to discuss issues affecting the country’s agriculture sector including skyrocketing food prices.
In a statement, Palace spokesman Harry Roque said the Department of Agriculture (DA) would spearhead the summit.
“The Executive branch is calling for a food security summit, with the [DA] as lead agency, to continue to boost and develop the agri-fishery sector through the cooperation, coordination and collaboration of the local government units (LGUs) and the private sector’s industry players and stakeholders,” the statement read.
Also to be discussed in the convention are the uptick in pork prices, drop in farmgate prices of palay and the onslaught of the African swine flu, among others, Roque said.
Roque said the summit aims to develop a national food security plan “to achieve our vision of a food-secure and resilient Philippines with prosperous farmers and fisherfolks, and where consumers have continuous flow of food and producers have continuous productivity, unhampered movement of agricultural commodities, accessibility and price stability.”
President Rodrigo Duterte recently set price caps on pork and chicken products: P270 per kilo for kasim or pigue, P300 per kilo for liempo and P160 per kilo for dressed chicken.
Malacañang has also urged pork sellers to continue selling pork despite price restrictions imposed by the government amid threats of “pork holidays.” John Ezekiel J. Hirro