Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap recently announced that the country's major hog industry players and the government have approved the adoption of a reference price for meat products.

The reference price covers the band of P140 to P150 per kilogram in retail price of choice pork items.

Recently, the National Federation of Hog Farmers, Inc. (NFHFI) has hailed the quick action of Yap in setting up measures to lower the prices of pork sold to consumers.

"This is good for the consumers, especially since farm gate prices are now lower," NFHFI President Albert Lim. Jr. said, adding that "there's really no reason for pork prices in the market to be sold at P160-P170 per kilo."

Lim revealed that the prices of pork in the wet markets should be in the P140-P150 level only since farm gate prices are at an average of P82 per kilo at the moment.

He said that the very low farm gate prices right now are putting a strain on many pig farmers.

Unfortunately, the high retail price in the markets is an additional burden to hog raisers because consumers tend to stay away from buying pork because it has become expensive for them, he said.

This way, he said, hog farmers will also benefit since the lower market price will increase consumer demand.

In Capiz, the farm gate price of hog is only P75 per kilogram while the average price of pork in the market in the province is noted at P140 to P150 per kilogram, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) here said.