The agriculture department will implement an executive order setting price caps on pork and chicken to Feb.8, its spokesman said in a radio interview on Tuesday.

Assistant Agriculture Secretary Noel Reyes told dzBB Secretary William Dar gave the order so stakeholders can adjust to Executive Order 124.

''The secretary announced that the price ceiling will be implemented next Monday so hog raisers can adjust (along with) wholesalers and retaiers because they still have inventories,'' said Reyes.

President Rodrigo Duterte issued an executive order Monday imposing a mandatory price ceiling on selected pork and chicken products in Metro Manila for at least two months.

EO No. 124, which Duterte signed on February 1, set the pork prices for kasim/pigue (pork shoulder/leg cut) at P270 per kilo while for liempo (belly), P300 per kilo, and for dressed chicken P160 per kilo.

But market sellers, interviewed on radio Tuesday morning, said it could be better to stop selling pork because they have to sell above the price cap to earn some money.

The Department of Agriculture will coordinate with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) spread the information. DMS