Prices of some products used for noche buena, the traditional Christmas Day midnight celebration, began increasing three months before the holiday season, a trade and industry official said on Friday.

During the "Laging Handa" public briefing Trade and Industry Undersecretary Ruth Castelo said products whose prices rose include pasta, ham, fruit cocktail, cheese and others.

"We have observed this already because the main noche buena items which we traditionally prepare, like hamon, queso de bola, pasta or spaghetti, and then fruit cocktail, these are the basic Christmas products," she said.

Castelo said the Department of Trade and Industry has observed the increase in some noche buena items this week.

"This week, we have already observed some increases. That is why even before we already reminded the public to start buying one by one if they can because the DTI knows that the prices will go up," she said.

"So we observed that this week the price of some products like ham, the Christmas ham, mayonnaise, pasta..has slightly increased now," she added.

Castelo said the DTI does not regulate Christmas products but they are calling manufacturers to minimize the increase to a maximum of 10 percent.

"For the noche buena products, I’d just want to clarify that what we release every October towards November is just a price guide; it is not an SRP, (suggested retail price)" she said.

"We released it so that the consumer will know ... we are still asking manufacturers of the Christmas products if they can maximize the increase to ten percent and we hope that it will not go over that so that our customers will not be surprised," she added. Robina Asido/DMS