The Department of Agriculture will not recommend a new retail price ceiling or suggested retail prices (SRPs) on rice despite the continued double-digit growth in the staple grain’s inflation rate.
“We do not have a plan to impose a price cap or SRP because it might have an ill effect in the future,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Arnel de Mesa said at the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City.
This is as the DA is ramping up efforts to enhance rice production across the Philippines while reducing costs, aiming to alleviate the strain of global inflation and El Niño on food and non-food commodities.
De Mesa outlined the government’s strategy, emphasizing increased mechanization and streamlined post-harvest processes to invigorate agricultural activity.
The effective preparation and coordinated response of the government has already mitigated the impact of El Niño, which is not expected to significantly affect palay production across the nation, as many regions had already completed their rice harvest amid the dry spell, De Mesa added.
Meanwhile, the National Food Authority (NFA) Council is set to meet on April 11 to discuss the possibility of adjusting its buying price of palay to make it competitive for local farmers.
Last September, the NFA Council upgraded its buying price of dry palay to P23 per kilo from P19 while its buying price for wet palay was raised to P19 from P16.
Compared to the latest PSA data as of February 2024, however, the NFA’s buying price of dry palay was lower than the average farmgate price nationwide of P25.21 per kilo.
Meanwhile, de Mesa reiterated Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr.’s statement that the NFA’s operations were unhampered despite the closure of several warehouses of the rice buffer stocking agency.
The DA spokesperson said around 97 NFA warehouses remained padlocked.
Last month, the Agriculture Department ordered the temporary shutdown of some NFA warehouses amid the ongoing investigation of the Ombudsman into the alleged irregular sale of rice buffer stocks.
Acknowledging current challenges, De Mesa highlighted a concerning post-harvest loss rate of approximately 15 to 20 percent, particularly during drying and milling phases, attributed partly to the diverse varieties of rice being cultivated.
“The percentage ranges from 15 to 20 percent depending on the area and level. Most of these losses occur during drying and milling. For instance, in milling, our current milling recovery stands at 65 percent, but many milling processes yield only 50 to 55 percent,” he said.
To address this, the DA plans to streamline the rice varieties, aiming to reduce the current count of over 18 varieties per region to just two or three, ensuring a more efficient milling system with higher recovery rates.
Meanwhile, De Mesa cited Mindoro as an example where the effects of El Niño coincided with the harvest season, resulting in minimal impact on production.
“Possible, but not as much. For example, in Mindoro, where we will go next week together with the NFA to purchase, 80 percent has already been harvested, only 20 percent remains,” he said.