The Department of Agriculture (DA) is seeking partnerships with major retail chains to expand the availability of affordable rice across the country.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. met with representatives of supermarkets, groceries and convenience stores last Tuesday, to discuss a government-led initiative to stabilize rice prices and improve access to consumers looking for lower priced rice, the department said on Thursday.
The DA intends to tap selected stores in Metro Manila, including those of SM, Robinsons, 7-Eleven, Puregold and MerryMart as a crucial component of the partnership in reaching millions of consumers daily. The initial roll out will likely involve at least 3,200 outlets.
Metro Manila was selected to pilot run the program, where rice prices remain high despite tariff reductions in the country and easing global interest rates.
Under the pilot run, private retail stores will sell rice at P29 per kg from the National Food Authority’s (NFA) aging stocks. The target market are customers belonging to the vulnerable sector that usually buy the commodity through the Rice-for-All program. Through this program the government sells 25 percent broken rice at P38 per kg and 5 percent broken imported rice at P58 per kg.
“This is a solution that we believe will stabilize rice prices faster, and more efficiently … But we need to find the right balance to operationalize this properly and secure everyone’s cooperation,” Tiu Laurel said.
State-owned food processing and distribution hub Food Terminal Inc. will handle the supply and packaging, as well as distribution to participating retail stores.
Tiu Laurel said the pilot initiative will be monitored over several months before deciding on expanding to other regions facing similar challenges as it will serve as a future model to enhance food security and affordability.
Prior to this, the Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association (PAGASA) said its members were willing to carry affordable rice that the government has been selling on a limited scale.
Earlier this month, Steven Cua, PAGASA executive director, said their members can accommodate low-cost rice as part of their product lineup for three months, “to tide consumers over” as the harvest season will start in February.
In the past PAGASA members stepped in when problems arose during the Arroyo and Duterte administrations, selling NFA rice which at the time was still authorized to commercially sell its stocks., the association said.
The Rice Tariffication Law of 2019 changed the NFA‘s mandate and function from trading and regulatory to a buffer stocking agency.
Based on DA’s monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region, local well-milled rice sold for P40 to P55 per kg last Tuesday while regular milled rice went for P37 to P48 per kg.
At the same time imported well-milled rice was selling for P40 to P52 per kilo while the price of imported regular milled rice ranged from P38 to P48 per kg.
Special-variety imported rice were selling P53 to P61 per kg and premium rice, P51 to P58.
Special-variety local rice went for P55 to P63 per kg while premium rice went for P48 to P58.