The price of chili, or locally known as siling labuyo, reached at least P500 per kilo on Wednesday from less than P100 two months ago.

Based on the price monitoring of the Department of Agriculture, the average price of chili from Sept. 13 to 15 reached to P550 - P800 per kilo from P70 to P200 per kilo from July 12 to 17.

In a text message to the Daily Manila Shimbun, Bureau of Plant Industry spokesman Jose Diego Roxas said "the increase in price is due to the low supply from our production areas particularly in Northern Luzon" due to the effect of the recent tropical cyclones.

"Supply was affected due to damages by the recent typhoons," he said.

Among the typhoons that hit the country since July to August includes super typhoons ''Egay'' and ''Goring.''

Roxas could not say until when high chili prices are expected to last but he noted that the government is considering to link areas not affected by the typhoons to markets.

"I believe there is a consideration to link unaffected production areas to the markets to reduce the price," he said. Robina Asido/DMS