By: Jordeene B. Lagare @jordeenelagare – @inquirerdotnet

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is exerting more efforts to bring down rice prices such as expanding its Rice-for-All program to other public markets and offering other varieties by next year.

Launched last August, the program is intended to make well-milled rice available to the public at P40 a kilo.

This initiative was initially rolled out in select Kadiwa stores in Metro Manila before the agency expanded its coverage to address persistently high retail prices.

The DA has expanded the program by deploying Kadiwa ng Pangulo kiosks that sell lower-priced rice at 10 public markets and four Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT) and Light Rail Manila Transit Line 1 (LRT) stations.

“The reception in public markets for the consumers is good but the problem is it looks like some market masters do not want to accommodate our kiosks,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in an interview on Monday evening.

Tiu Laurel said rice retailers were complaining, noting that the DA’s selling price for the staple grain is much lower than the prevailing market price of P48 to P52 per kg.

“Their sales have decreased a lot. There is a direct competition. But the reality is we have to compete. We talked to them three weeks ago to lower their selling price to P42 per kilogram. They agreed but did not follow through on what we had agreed on,” he told reporters.

Tiu Laurel said he is approaching mayors in the metropolis to convince market masters to set up Kadiwa kiosks in their respective public markets.

So far, the mayors of Quezon City, Pasay, Caloocan, Manila, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Malabon, Navotas, Marikina and Valenzuela are on board with the program.

He said the DA has yet to initiate talks with the local executives of San Juan, Pasig, Taguig, Pateros, Mandaluyong and Muntinlupa.

According to the agriculture chief, the agency is looking at further lowering the selling price to P38-P39 per kg by next year.

The Office of the President already authorized the DA to use the P5 billion budget to implement Rice-for-All and P29 rice programs, which sells rice at discounted prices to vulnerable sectors including senior citizens, persons with disabilities, solo parents and indigents.

“Starting January, I said, latest Jan. 15, we will be buying rice from, say, the traders, the farmers, farmer co-ops, from the importers and sell it through the Kadiwa ng Pangulo at hopefully P38 to P39 [per kilo],” Tiu Laurel said.

The DA is working on the rollout of new rice varieties called “sulit rice” and “nutri rice” that will be sold for P36 and P38 per kg, respectively, come 2025.

Tiu Laurel said the sulit rice variety, targeted to be released by January next year, is white and 100 percent broken but “comes from the good variety.”

On the other hand, nutri rice is brown and will hit the markets by the second quarter of 2025.

Meanwhile, Tiu Laurel said the DA plans to submit to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. by Friday a draft bill seeking to regain the National Food Authority’s regulatory powers.

“I think with just the right budget and the right policy that NFA be allowed to sell its palay or rice to intervene. That’s enough,” he added.

Published Date: December 18, 2024