The government is monitoring the prices of pork, chicken and other basic commodities that are in demand during the Christmas season, with the Department of Trade and Industry warning that it will not think twice about imposing price controls again should the situation warrant.

Trade Secretary Peter Favila issued the warning after some traders and millers imposed recent increases in the selling price of sugar.

He said that upon the request of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, the DTI will meet with sugar millers and traders today, December 11, to address concerns of local sugar producers who have asked the government to adjust the price ceiling on sugar from P38 per kilo to P41.

The government imposed price ceilings on basic commodities in October after Metro Manila and most of Luzon were devastated by a series of powerful typhoons that inundated many areas and caused widespread deaths and destruction.

Favila said the National Price Council will also be convened today to address various reports that there is heavy sugar demand by industrial users amid the shutting down of mill operations.

“Some millers have stopped their operations for the time being but it’s the milling season so we want to find out from the traders and the dealers themselves: Ano ba talaga ito?

“Because if you don’t see the prices stabilizing at certain reasonable levels, we will be forced to do something more drastic,” Favila said in an interview in Malacanang.

Favila admitted that among agricultural products, the government encountered “a little bit problem” in stabilizing the price of sugar.

While he noted that they have not received reports of runaway prices of basic commodities, the DTI chief said they would focus on monitoring Christmas items.

“The concern of the consuming public is Christmas items which are very much in demand like chicken, pork, queso de bola, hamon. But primarily problema ngayon is sugar; that is where the challenge is,” he said.

He warned that more reports of hoarding would prod concerned authorities to conduct the inspection of warehouses nationwide.

The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) attributed the shortage of refined sugar in the market to the refusal of sugar producers to sell their raw sugar to millers due to pricing disputes.

It said the DTI’s imposition of a P38 per kilo price ceiling on sugar was invalid since it did not consider the existing mill gate price of raw sugar.