In a press briefing, United Broilers’ Raisers Association chair Gregorio San Diego said that, since production is expected to be flat this year, the government last October had decided to import some three million kilos of chicken to ensure that there would be no shortage of supply this December.

“Even with this ample supply ... wet market prices have increased,” San Diego lamented.

He explained that, because consumer demand has gone down, retailers and wet market sellers have been forced to jack up prices of poultry products to recover their losses.

Prices of chicken have been monitored at P125 a kilo, he added.

“This is too high,” San Diego said. “Even with lower farmgate prices, the prices of chicken at retail markets always increase during this time of the year. It’s palengke mechanics already.”

According to San Diego, this is where government intervention should come in to curb rising prices at the retail level.