P45 rice max SRP begins March 31 – DA

A maximum suggested retail price (SRP) of P45 per kilo of imported rice will be enforced starting March 31 amid declining global rice prices, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).

- BELLA CARIASO

"At this level, the retail price of imported rice has now decreased by P19 per kilo compared to its price before we implemented the max SRP on Jan. 20," Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said yesterday.

Before the max SRP's implementation, imported rice was sold for P64 per kilo, he recalled.

Tiu Laurel imposed a max SRP after a 20-percent tariff cut failed to reduce rice prices.

Initially set at P58 per kilo on Jan. 20, the rice max SRP decreased to P55 per kilo on Feb. 5, P52 per kilo on Feb. 15 and P49 per kilo on March 1.

The Philippine Statistics Authority had recognized the max SRP as a key factor in reducing rice prices and helping to tame inflation, Tiu Laurel noted.

"In fact, the March inflation print of 2.1 percent was unexpectedly lower than both market and central bank predictions," he said.

Global rice prices have dropped to their lowest levels in over two years, with some varieties now priced below $380 per metric ton.

Before the rice max SRP declined to P49 per kilo, Tiu Laurel said the price of five-percent broken grains from Vietnam had decreased to $490 per MT, approximately $200 cheaper than in December.

Vietnam is the Philippines' main source of imported rice.

Data from Food Terminal Inc. revealed the landed cost of imported rice in March ranged between P32 and P34 per kilo.

Total rice imports from January to March 20 reached 737,149 MT, with the bulk, or 588,953 MT, coming from Vietnam.

Farmers' suicide probed

Meanwhile, farmers' reports of a widespread sale of P14 per kilo of palay are not fake news, former agriculture secretary Leonardo Montemayor said yesterday.

The DA on Monday tapped the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to probe incidents wherein three Nueva Ecija farmers reportedly took their own lives due to the ongoing slump in palay prices.