DA eyeing SRP on rice next week

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).

- BELLA CARIASO

“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.