MANILA, Philippines — The suggested retail price (SRP) of rice could be released next week amid the spike in the retail price of the staple food, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
“The technical committee met this morning. Hopefully, by next week, we can release the SRP. It will depend on Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS),” Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said yesterday.
AMAS is currently consulting with stakeholders about the proposed SRP, he added.
De Mesa on Saturday announced that the DA is mulling the implementation of SRP on the grains to contain the unabated increase in the retail prices of rice.
“High retail price of rice is expected as we are going into the lean season. We don’t have local production as our source is only imports. The price of imported rice is also high,” he said.
Former agriculture secretary Leonardo Montemayor cautioned the DA on implementing the SRP, which he said could affect the farmgate price of palay during the next harvest.
“(The proposed SRP) should be reviewed thoroughly as the first to be affected will be the farmers in the next harvest season, which will be around April. Traders will try to recover their losses because of the SRP in the form of lower farmgate prices of palay,” Montemayor said.
“I don’t think the prices of rice will stabilize. Most likely, it will further increase. In 2022, imported rice was only $400 per ton. Last year, it increased to $640, or 44 percent increase,” he pointed out.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. should continue the ongoing consultations with stakeholders to address the upward trend in the retail price of rice, he said.
Based on monitoring of the DA in Metro Manila markets yesterday, local regular milled rice was sold for as high as P53 per kilo; local well-milled rice, P55 per kilo; local premium rice, P63 per kilo; local special rice, P68 per kilo; imported well-milled rice, P58 per kilo; imported premium rice, P61 per kilo and imported special rice, P65 per kilo.
Price subsidy
Meanwhile, AGRI party-list Rep. Wilbert Lee yesterday sought the immediate passage of a bill establishing a “price subsidy” program for farmers, as prices of rice continue to spike.
In a statement, Lee said his proposed measure would ensure farmers’ profit and entice them to boost production.
In House Bill 9020 or the Cheaper Rice Act, the DA and other concerned agencies would have to buy rice from local farmers at higher prices or an additional P5 to P10 per kilo.
The rice would have to be sold to consumers at cheaper rates.
“If we want to bring down the prices of rice to P20 per kilo, this Cheaper Rice Act is the answer to that,” he claimed.
Lee was referring to President Marcos’ campaign promise to lower the price of rice. More than a year into office, Marcos has not fulfilled this promise.
Based on Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data, rice inflation reached 19.6 percent in December 2023, the highest since the recorded 22.9 percent rice inflation in March 2009.
Lee said the government should not rely on importation to achieve cheaper rice and instead focus on improving rice self-sufficiency, which “HB 9020 aims to achieve.”
Tariff cuts
A fishers’ group strongly criticized the extension of reduced tariffs for selected agricultural products approved by President Marcos last December.
In a statement yesterday, Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) argued that the prolonged tariff cut “reflects the administration’s commitment to import-liberalization policies, which have burdened local agricultural producers.”
Executive Order No. 50 extended the reduced most favored nation tariff rates on pork, corn and rice until the end of 2024.
Pamalakaya said the measure was ostensibly aimed at making agricultural products more affordable amid the El Niño phenomenon, but the PSA’s report on rice inflation in 2023 showed it reached its highest level since March 2009.
The group noted that the government’s data highlight that opening doors to imported agricultural products does not prevent price increases.
Marcos has been persistent in import-liberalization policies that favored foreign capital instead of strengthening local agri-fisheries production through sufficient state support such as subsidies and production facilities, they argued.
Pamalakaya reiterated its support for House Bill 405 or the Rice Industry Development Act, which aims to provide rice farmers with affordable production inputs like seeds, fertilizers and tools.
The group earlier called on the DA to stop fish imports, as the Philippines has imported over 250,000 metric tons of various pelagic fish, mostly from China and Taiwan, since 2018. – Sheila Crisostomo, Mark Ernest Villeza