DA: Enough rice supply, stable prices

A ranking official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) has given assurance of enough rice supply and stable price of the grains even when the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) questioned the alleged discrepancies in data issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

- BELLA CARIASO

In an interview, Agriculture Assistant Secretary and spokesman Arnel de Mesa maintained that all the data used by the DA were based on official figures from the PSA.

"All the data that we are using came from them (PSA)...we have 1.64 million metric tons beginning inventory for quarter one. Our import data and production level also came from PSA. We have production data of 4.68 million metric tons times .654 because it is for palay, in rice form, that's 3.02 million MT plus imports," De Mesa pointed out.

He added that the imported rice for the first quarter reached 1.1 million MT.

Raul Montemayor, FFF national manager, questioned the continued discrepancies in the rice production and inventory data from the PSA, saying the wrong figures could mean tight supply of the staple in the coming months.

He said that based on the latest PSA inventory report, the country's rice stocks totaled 1.64 million MT as of April 1, 2024, which is sufficient for only 44 days.