The government is seriously considering lifting the price caps on rice soon ahead of a special meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday.
“There is serious consideration to lift (the caps), We will discuss that with the President,” said Secretary Alfredo Pascual of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Pascual said “there is a paper to be the basis of the decision prepared by the National Economic and Development Authority. “
Pascual expressed satisfaction to the compliance to the price ceilings on regular milled rice and well-milled rice at P41 and P45 , respectively, as well as the rollout of the financial aid to retailers.
To date, P69 million has been disbursed to 5,000 retailers.
Pascual was scheduled to meet with manufacturers yesterday to tackle their petitions for price increases.
At the Pandesal Forum yesterday, the market leader in pasta and milk vowed to hold off any price increase as a relief to consumers, a move that could set the tone of price adjustments of competitor brands until the end of the year.
Joey Concepcion, president and chief executive officer of RFM Corp., said it has not adjusted prices of pasta since last year due to stable costs of wheat.
Concepcion said RFM has even reduced the prices of Selecta Milk in Tetra Pak to make the products more affordable in view of stiff competition in this space.
Meanwhile, former Department of Agriculture (DA) secretaries Emmanuel Piñol and Leonardo Montemayor, urged the current administration to undertake a nationwide solar-powered irrigation system (SPIS) program to help attain rice self-sufficiency at price-competitive levels.
The two former officials said in a statement that around 200,000 hectares of land inadequately serviced by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) will benefit from the recommendation.
These areas are usually located at the tail-end of NIA’s dam-sourced irrigation distribution system and gets minimal or no water at all, during the dry season palay cropping period. Montemayor said a similar proposal was submitted to the Office of the President early this year by businessman Oscar Violago but has not received any response.
He said there are over 300 various SPIS installed in various parts of the country.
The SPIS program was introduced by Piñol in 2017 in M’lang, Cotabato and later in Lumban, Laguna. Irma Isip
