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The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday said it would lift the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) for pork, demand for which spiked during the election season, within 24 hours amid low compliance among suppliers.

“It’s called one step back and two steps forward,” Agriculture Undersecretary for Livestock Constante J. Palabrica told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event on Wednesday. The agency is studying a better way to deal with high pork prices, he added.

“We are going to lift it, we’re going to study it then come up with a revised program,” he said.

The MSRP was set at PHP 300 per kilo for whole pig, PHP 350 per kilo for pork shoulder and hind leg and PHP 380 per kilo for pork belly. 

But the agency had been complaining about low compliance with the MSRP since the first week of implementation, now at below 30%.

Mr. Palabrica attributed high pork retail prices to high farmgate prices that have hit as much as PHP 290 per kilo.

He said increased demand during the election season outpaced low domestic supply caused by the African Swine Fever (ASF). “It’s the law of supply and demand.”

“So, expect a possible revision of MSRP, holding it for the meantime while we are studying how to make it really effective,” he added.

For now, the agency will focus on buying hogs from pig farms at a lower price — set at PHP 230 per kilo — and distributing these to key slaughterhouses.

He was referring to a direct-sourcing strategy piloted by the Food Terminal, Inc. (FTI) with Thai firm Charoen Pokphand Foods PLC (CP Foods). The FTI is supplying a Caloocan slaughterhouse with 100 live hogs daily from CP Foods under a pilot program that started in April.

“The first thing we asked for was 100 pigs a day,” Mr. Palabrica said. “And then by next month, it will be 200. And then our target is around 500 pigs [a month].”

He added that the government is also looking into a similar strategy used by other farm companies including Pilmico Foods Corp.

“We are looking for other farms which can supply us with our own price,” he said. “If we can get a price of PHP 230, then we can supply at a lower price in the market.”

The Agriculture official said about PHP 5-7 billion is earmarked for the direct-sourcing program, which doesn’t cost the FTI because it sells the hogs at the same price, while the delivery cost to slaughterhouses is shouldered by the partner company.

“If we get it at PHP 230, you will also buy at PHP 230. Then for logistics, we have gotten a discounted price,” he added.

Mr. Palabrica said Philippine pork supply is stable. “We have enough supply of pork. But the limited number is for local pork. On imported pork, we have a lot of supply.”

Pork imports hit 53.598 million kilos in February, up from 38.994 million kilos a year earlier.

Forty-two Philippine villages had ASF cases as of March 28, up from 39 barangays as of March 14, according to data from the Bureau of Animal Industry. More than 6,200 villages have been affected by ASF cases since the first outbreak in 2019.

Mr. Palabrica said they expect the commercial rollout of a Vietnamese ASF vaccine by the end of the year.

The Agriculture department earlier said it is working with the hog industry to increase their herds by at least two million hogs each year through 2028 to return to pre-ASF levels.

Regionalization pact

Meanwhile, Mr. Palabrica said the Philippines is in talks with several countries as it implements a regionalization agreement for the imports of live chickens and their products.

Thailand, Taiwan, Paraguay and Chile are seeking to be included in the deal that seeks to do away with a countrywide ban on a trade partner dealing with bird flu outbreaks, he said.

Under the pact, the Philippines will impose a ban on poultry imports only from a specific area affected by avian influenza, allowing imports from zones or regions certified free from the animal disease.

The US, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Brazil and the Netherlands are among the countries that have been accredited by the Philippine government, Mr. Palabrica said.

The DA earlier said a countrywide ban limits the sources of day-old chicks, parent stocks and poultry meat, which leads to higher prices.

The three-phase process for inclusion in the agreement includes submission of documents on veterinary oversight, disease surveillance, traceability, control measures and zoning protocols by the exporting country.

The application will be reviewed by a risk assessment team.

A regionalization agreement will then be drafted and finalized after a successful evaluation, outlining the import terms and conditions, including revised veterinary certificates.

The agreement also mandates continuous disease reporting and biennial reviews and provides grounds for termination in cases of undeclared outbreaks.

Philippine chicken imports hit 31.7 million kilos in February from 32.426 million kilos a year earlier. – Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter

The Philippine government should reform its housing policies as more Filipinos live with extended families — a sign that traditional family structures are shifting, according to the Philippines Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

About 29% of Filipino households are no longer the traditional nuclear type, as more relatives resort to cohabitation to share in housing and other costs, PIDS Supervising Research Specialist Tatum P. Ramos told a recent webinar.

“They have decided to join their relatives in a household to gain support in growing their own family or [to manage] living and housing expenses,” she said, based on a PIDS statement released on Wednesday.

A PIDS paper cited the significant link between wealth and the likelihood of living in extended households.

“An extended family setup offers a resource-sharing opportunity and provides support for working young female adults who may not necessarily have the same amount of time for household management activities as before,” PIDS said.

Rising housing prices, especially in Metro Manila and in key cities, have forced households to share living spaces with relatives, Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said in a Viber message.

“[There’s also the] lack of mass transport or train systems that would allow more Filipinos to live farther from central business districts to nearby provinces where housing is cheaper,” he added.

“The low attainability of housing in the Philippines is resulting in lower household formation with the rise of extended and multi-family arrangements and nonfamily housing arrangements (living alone or living with nonrelatives),” Ms. Ramos and her co-authors Marife M. Ballesteros and Jenica A. Ancheta said in the study.

“Government efforts to address this issue through a market-driven strategy should be reviewed, and housing affordability issues have to be closely examined,” they added.

Housing prices in the Philippines rose 6.7% in the fourth quarter of 2024 from a year earlier, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Mary Racelis, who teaches anthropology at the University of the Philippines, said housing policies should go beyond abstract models to address the lived experiences of the bottom 60% of the population — those who are underserved and priced out of formal housing markets.

She cited the need to understand the poor’s economic conditions to help design sustainable and inclusive housing plans.

“We should recognize that the informal settlers are not the problem, they are the solution,” she told the webinar, adding that informal settlers are not mere passive aid recipients.

Despite the wide membership of housing funds like the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG), the uptake of government assistance for housing finance remains limited, said Kevin Godoy, chief development specialist at the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development.

“Only 4% have government assistance as a financing source… considering that Pag-IBIG had 16 million members in 2024,” he pointed out.

He cited the importance of transport infrastructure, noting that long commutes rather than urban congestion alone are a major barrier to homeownership and household formation.

Mr. Godoy also sought the creation of a national rental housing program.

“We’re the only country in Southeast Asia that does not have a national program on public rental,” he said, noting how local governments have been left to experiment with rental solutions on their own in the absence of a national framework.

The Philippines faces a housing deficit of 6.5 million units, which could rise to 22 million by 2040 if not addressed, according to the United Nations Human Settlements Program. – Beatriz Marie D. Cruz, Reporter

MILAN, Italy — The government is open to adopting a seasonal tariff scheme for rice imports to better protect farmers.   

“Yes, we will need to study it. I would say if there are no operational or even legal impediments to it, I would favor it. Because that way, we can stabilize farmers’ incomes and prices that farmers receive,” Department of Economy, Planning, and Development Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank Annual Meeting here last week.

This comes after the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) proposed implementing levies that are strategically timed to not clash with the height of the harvest season. Seasonal tariffs would also mean variable rather than fixed duties.

Since July last year, the government slashed tariffs on rice imports to 15% from 35% until 2028 to tame spiraling prices.

Mr. Balisacan said the government would need to study how to implement seasonal tariffs, adding that these used to be a primary instrument of the European Union and the United States prior to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“Now, we have to find out how you navigate that, because who is following WTO at this time? Everybody’s just changing tariffs everywhere, so we have to find a way to study this.”

A seasonal tariff will shield farmers from the impact of volatile prices, he added.

“What you’re actually doing is establishing a price that you would want the farmers to face. Then when the world prices drop, you raise the tariff so as to keep the price. When the world prices rise sharply, you reduce the tariff. In other words, you’re stabilizing the price faced by farmers. So that’s good,” Mr. Balisacan said.

For the past few months, rice inflation has been on a downtrend after the government implemented several measures to tame the retail prices of the staple.

Apart from lower tariffs, it also declared a food security emergency on rice in February, which allows the release of buffer stocks. The Agriculture department also imposed a maximum suggested retail price on rice earlier this year.

In April, rice inflation further contracted to 10.9% from the 7.7% decline in March.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed the average price of a kilo of regular milled rice nationwide fell by 13.3% year on year to P44.45 in April. Average prices of well-milled rice dropped by 10.4% to P50.54 while special rice decreased by 6.2% to P60.69.

Despite this, farmers’ groups have said rice prices still remain elevated in most local markets.

The Committee on Tariff and Related Matters (CTRM) is already reviewing the proposal to implement seasonal levies, Mr. Balisacan said.

“From there, they will recommend it to the CTRM Cabinet, and then it will be elevated to the Economy and Development Council, which is formerly the National Economic and Development Authority Board.”

Farmers’ groups like the FFF and Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura have also recommended bringing the rice tariff back to 35%.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said it is also open to considering seasonal tariffs pending further study.

“Conceptually, we are receptive to the idea and we’re willing to consider many ideas,” Agriculture Undersecretary Asis G. Perez told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of the same event. “But we have to find ways to implement it and also make sure, because when you do it at the seasonal level, sometimes it might cause uncertainty and unpredictability.”

“As for the concept itself, we are receptive to considering the idea as proposed. As always, the DA is like that. We don’t shut down an idea.”

Mr. Perez said their policies must aim to “take out the unpredictability” in food supply, which affects prices.

“That’s to ensure consistency, predictability, which is, I think, a critical element for a robust food supply system. Not only for rice but for everything, any other product,” he added.

The DA in January said it was expecting the palay or unmilled rice harvest to exceed 20 million metric tons (MT) this year. In 2024, palay output declined to a four-year low of 19.09 million MT, down by 4.84% from the previous year.

Rice imports will likely decline 1.9% to 5.2 million MT this year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. In 2024, rice imports hit a record 4.7 million MT. – Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson, Senior Reporter

The peso depreciated against the dollar on Tuesday after the US and China announced they would temporarily drop additional tariffs imposed on each other.

It closed at PHP 55.795 per dollar, 28.5 centavos weaker than its PHP 55.51 finish on Friday, according to Bankers Association of the Philippines data posted on its website.

The peso opened weaker at PHP 55.80 against the dollar. Its worst showing was at PHP 55.90 while its intraday best was at PHP 55.58 versus the greenback.

Dollars exchanged rose to USD 1.89 billion from USD 1.65 billion on Friday.

The dollar generally strengthened against the dollar on Tuesday after the US and China  agreed to drop extra tariffs imposed on each other for the next 90 days, Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said in a Viber message.

“The dollar-peso closed higher as players reacted to US-China trade deals resulting in lower tariffs,” a trader likewise said by telephone.

On Monday, the US announced it would lower the tariffs imposed on Chinese goods to 30% from 145%, while China would cut levies on US products to 10% from 125%, after trade talks in Geneva, Switzerland.

The trader expects the peso to move from PHP 55.50 to PHP 56 a dollar on Wednesday, while Mr. Ricafort sees it at PHP 55.70 to PHP 55.90.

The dollar retreated slightly on Tuesday but held most of its gains on lingering optimism over a tariff deal between the US and China, which tapped the brakes on a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

“It’s way better than the market was expecting,” said Rodrigo Catril, senior FX strategist at National Australia Bank.

“It’s just an indication of, for one, the US administration is quite sensitive to the impact (tariffs are) having on the economy, and some would say there’s been a serious walk back in terms of what they’ve done.”

China’s yuan scaled a six-month high, peaking at 7.1855 per dollar, which in turn lifted the Australian and New Zealand dollars.

The Aussie was up 0.64% to USD 0.6412, while the kiwi gained 0.55% to USD 0.5889. The two Antipodean currencies are often used as liquid proxies for the yuan.

Elsewhere, the yen and the euro were recovering from their steep falls against a resurgent dollar in the previous session.

The yen was up 0.48% at 147.76 per dollar, having tumbled more than 2% on Monday. Similarly, the euro rose 0.25% to USD 1.1114, after sliding 1.4% overnight.

“In terms of magnitude, I think it’s fair to say that the big moves have been seen. But for scope for an extension of the moves, I think particularly the euro and the yen will have a bias for those moves to extend a little bit further over the coming weeks,” Mr. Catril said.

The dollar fell 0.25% against the Swiss franc to 0.8429, reversing some of Monday’s 1.6% jump. The sterling ticked up 0.16% to USD 1.3199.

Against a basket of currencies, the dollar hovered near a one-month high and was last at 101.54.

The de-escalation of US-China trade tensions has in turn led traders to pare back bets of Federal Reserve rate cuts, on the view that policymakers would be under less pressure to ease monetary policy to support growth.

US Treasury yields rose in tandem, with the two-year yield steadying near a one-month high at 4.009%, while the benchmark 10-year yield was last at 4.465%.

Futures show markets are now pricing in just about 56 basis points of Fed cuts by December.

“The Fed has been focused on the increase in uncertainty. This will remain the case, although the announcement may remove some of the downside risk that had been prevalent had the higher tariff rates remained in effect,” said David Doyle, head of economics at Macquarie.

Data on US inflation is due later on Tuesday, where expectations are for the core and headline number to have picked up on a monthly basis in April. — Aaron Michael C. Sy with Reuters