The Departments of Agriculture (DA) and Trade and Industry (DTI) are joining forces to explore “creative ways” to reduce rice prices.
One of their first moves is to determine a maximum suggested retail price for rice, the departments said in a statement yesterday.
They agreed to draft and sign a memorandum of understanding to speed up efforts in addressing the high cost of rice in the country.
Declaring a national food security emergency remains an option, the Agriculture Department said.
Under the amended Rice Tariffication Law, the DA is allowed to issue such a declaration that gives the department authority to release rice stocks held in reserve by the National Food Authority and increase rice supply in the market to immediately lower the commodity’s retail prices.
The initial focus would be on imported rice but government efforts would extend beyond that, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said.
“Imported rice is just the beginning … We plan to cast the price net wider to include other imported food commodities like vegetables and meat, ultimately benefiting the Filipino consumer,” the secretary emphasized.
Meanwhile, Trade Secretary Cristina Roque, who also chairs the National Price Coordinating Council, intends to convene the interagency council and review strategies aimed at stabilizing food prices and ensuring fair trading practices in the market.
“We aim to strike a balance between business sustainability and consumer protection … We want the public to know that we are leaving no stones unturned in our efforts to ease the burden on Filipino consumers,” Roque said.
The Trade Department also aims to review existing regulations on the sale and labelling of manufactured goods in order to make them the rules applicable to agricultural commodities as well, particularly rice.
The Agriculture Department has yet to determine the maximum retail price of rice.
Based on its monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region last Monday, prices of local well-milled rice ranged from P40 to P52 per kilogram and P38 to P48 per kg for regular milled.
The price of imported well-milled rice was priced at P40 to P54 per kg, while imported regular milled rice was selling at P40 to P48 per kg.
Special varieties of imported rice were selling from P55 to P63 per kg and P52 to P60 for premium varieties.
Special varieties of local rice costs P55 to P63 per kg and P48 to P58 for premium varieties.
