Only 20 percent of retailers complied with the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) on pork in Metro Manila wet markets, the Department of Agriculture (DA) reported.

Last week, the DA announced an MSRP of P380 per kilo for liempo, P350 per kilo for kasim and pigue, and P300 per kilo for "sabit ulo," the prices at which traders sell pork to retailers.

However, a week later, DA revealed, citing reports from their Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance, only 20 percent of more than 170 stalls monitored were compliant.

"Kung hihimayin mo ang compliance sa sabit ulo, ang level ng compliance is 6 to 7 percent. Kung hindi compliant sa sabit ulo, mahihirapan mag-comply talaga sa MSRP. Iyon yung tututukan ngayon (If you break down the compliance with "sabit ulo," the level of compliance is 6 to 7 percent. If it's not compliant with "sabit ulo," it will be really difficult to comply with MSRP. That’s what will be focused on now)," Agriculture spokesperson Arnel de Mesa said in a press briefing on Monday.

Sabit ulo, key to MSRP

"Kasi nakikita natin dito from the producer side, mababa na yung farmgate. Bakit di makarating ng 300 pesos (sabit ulo) yung napagkasunduan sa meeting, merong hindi sumusunod. [B]ut isang linggo pa lang naman yung nakakalipas (Because we can see here from the producer side, the farmgate price is already low. Why can't the agreed price of 300 pesos (sabit ulo) be reached? There are some who are not following. But it’s only been a week since the meeting.)," he added.

De Mesa also pointed out that, compared to rice, the MSRP compliance is 45 percent, further stressing that the issue lies with the sabit ulo price, which needs to be P300 for the MSRP to be met.

He also said further meetings and assessments will review the implementation of the pork MSRP.

Based on DA’s latest monitoring, the weekly average prices for pork ham and pork belly from 10 to 15 March per kilo are P372 and P419, respectively, while frozen kasim weekly averaged P252 per kilo and frozen liempo at P311 per kilo.