The Department of Agriculture (DA) has announced it will offer the P20 per kilogram rice in 55 Kadiwa rolling stores by June, up from the current 32 stores.
Most of the additional Kadiwa selling sites for the P20/kg rice will be in Luzon, said Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., in an interview with reporters at the sidelines of an event hosted by the DA in Quezon City, on Thursday.
Tiu Laurel added that apart from the local government units (LGU) of Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor and Southern Leyte, the DA has been talking with LGUs from Mindoro, in order to make the P20/kg rice available to more people nationwide.
The subsidized rice program is jointly implemented through the DA’s Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) and the National Food Authority, with participating LGUs.
The FTI and the participating LGU will equally shoulder the P13/kg subsidy to bring the retail price of rice down to P20/kg, with rice stocks milled from the palay previously purchased by the NFA from local farmers.
Vulnerable groups, including solo parents, persons with disabilities, senior citizens, and beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program will have access to the P20/kg rice at Kadiwa centers.
Each qualified household can buy as much as 30 kilograms of rice at P20/kg.
The pilot-test of the P20/kg rice program, which has started in the Visayas, 32 Kadiwa stores in urban centers across the country and several other government sites, has been allocated P4.5 billion from President Marcos’ contingency fund and will run until December 2025.
“We are choosing areas based on poverty incidents, specifically those with the highest rates… It is done that way to be fair for everyone,” Tiu Laurel explained.
He added that the DA has been working to bring the P20/kg rice to areas in Mindanao, mainly in Zamboanga and in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, by July to September.
Meanwhile, Tiu Laurel announced that the suspension of the pork’s maximum suggested retail price (MSRP), a price watchdog mechanism of the DA for the hogs industry, took effect on Thursday.
The agency earlier said it was suspending the pork MSRP to study how to make it more effective and feasible for hog raisers and consumers, and gain more compliance among stakeholders.
The DA first set last March the MSRPs for pork in National Capital Region wet markets, at P380/kg for liempo, and P350/ kg for kasim and pigue, apart from a maximum price of P300/kg for “sabit ulo” or the price at which traders pass pork to retailers.
The DA said that in its market inspections since early April, fewer than 10 percent of sellers were found adhering to the MSRPs.
Tiu Laurel added that planned changes to the minimum access volume (MAV) quota for pork would likely take effect only by 2026.
Pork imported under the MAV quota enjoys a lower tariff of 15 percent compared to the regular rate of 25 percent.
Allocation for the pork MAV is a total of 55,000 metric tons (MT), with 30,000 MT currently set aside for meat processors to ensure lower priced processed meat.
Tiu Laurel said they decided not to change this year’s pork MAV allocations as these formed part of the tariff negotiations with the United States.
“So, whatever changes we will make with the allocation, it will be for 2026,” he explained.
Earlier, the DA announced plans to revise the rules of the MAV for pork, and allocate a part of it to the government, through the FTI, after finding out that only a few stakeholders have benefitted from it.
Tiu Laurel had said they found out that of the 130 quota holders, 47 accounted for 80 percent of the total allocated import volume. Among the 47, twenty-two cornered 70 percent of that volume.
