Villar warns traders against hiking fish, vegetables prices

With the mad cow scare, meat sales have dipped but fish and vegetables are selling briskly.

With this, former Speaker Manny Villar warned unscrupulous traders against "taking advantage of the situation" to unreasonably raise prices of fish and vegetables as consumers are shying from meat products.

"I appeal to our traders not to resort to jacking up prices of fish and vegetables," said Villar. He points out that any increase in prices will have an adverse effect on Filipino consumers.

"As it is ordinary consumers are having a hard time making both ends meet and traders must not take undue advantage of the mad cow scare to bilk consusmers," added Villar, himself a former fish vendor at the Divisoria market.

He also urged the Trade and Industry Department to intensify price monitoring of basic goods to ensure that prices are not unjustly raised.

Meat sales are reported to have gone down by as much as 50% after the mad cow scare spread across the country. The disease is caused by the bovine spongiform encephalopathy virus that has infected cattle from European countries.

Recently, the The Las Piñas solon and People Power Coalition senatorial candidate says steps must be taken by the Agriculture Department to develop the local meat industry such that the country’s meat requirement are met by local producers.