Noche Buena price guide may be out by November – official

Noche Buena items. INQUIRER FILES

Acting Trade Secretary Cristina Roque on Monday said they are looking to publish next month this year’s price guide for “Noche Buena” products.

This is because the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is still studying whether they will grant the price adjustments petitioned by manufacturers.

“I still have to discuss with (the) Fairtrade Consumer Protection Group. But for now, our stand is no price increase,” she said during a virtual press conference when asked if there would be price increases in the upcoming bulletin.

Almost two weeks ago, the trade official said this year’s appeals from manufacturers cover a wider range of products compared to last year.

READ: Prices up among ‘noche buena’ items

In 2023, the prices of Noche Buena staples hams and fruit cocktails saw notable increases in their price tags.

A total of 83 stock-keeping units (SKUs) – the technical term used by stores to identify and categorize specific inventories – in the DTI’s Noche Buena price bulletin saw an increase of one percent to five percent. Another 37 SKUs had theirs rise by six percent to 10 percent, while 32 more climbed by more than 10 percent.

The DTI attributed the price hikes back then to rising costs of packaging materials, labor, power, and distribution as shared by manufacturers.

For holiday hams, more than half or 23 of the 39 SKUs saw an increase ranging from as low as P6 to as high as P12.

READ: Lechon paksiw for days: Ranking Noche Buena leftovers and their afterlives, from worst to best

Meanwhile, all the different brands and sizes of fruit cocktails in the list had upward price adjustments ranging from as low as P0.83 to as much as P18.05.

Despite the increase in costs last year, 34 other SKUs had no change in their prices, while the remaining 21 SKUs saw varying drops.

Preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) puts the country’s headline inflation in September at 1.9 percent, easing from the 3.3 percent in August and 6.1 percent in the same month last year.

The latest reading, which is at its lowest in four years, brought the nine-month average inflation this year to 3.4 percent.