DA to track down pigs to be sold in markets

Piqued by the non-compliance by retailers of the maximum suggested retail price for pork, the Department of Agriculture will pilot test a “tracing system” that would give retailers a card containing information about the hogs they would be selling.

The card would contain information like origin of the farm, the traders, the transporters and other levels of the logistic chain. This would improve tracking along the value chain to better ascertain retail prices, the DA said in a press statement.

With the card, “we will know where the pig came from, who transported it, which slaughterhouse it came from. It will follow the value chain of the pig,” this way the DA would know the price variations at each level of the supply chain, explained DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr.

He was baffled at the low compliance rate of the MSRP despite the agreements reached with the stakeholders.

If the plans aren’t followed, there might be a Quinta Committee hearing against, he intoned.