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MANILA, Philippines — To ensure retailers’ compliance, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. will lead a market inspection in Quezon City today – the first day of effectivity of the P45 per kilo maximum suggested retail price (SRP) on imported rice.

Trade and Industry Secretary Cristina Roque, city officials and police will accompany Tiu Laurel during the market visit.

The max SRP on imported rice started with P58 per kilo on Jan. 20, followed by P55 per kilo on Feb. 5, P52 per kilo on Feb. 15 and P49 per kilo on March 1.

Tiu Laurel was forced to implement max SRP on the grains amid the failure of Executive Order No. 62 to significantly bring down the retail price. EO 62 lowered the tariff on imported staple to 15 percent from the previous 35 percent.

The agriculture secretary noted that the retail price of imported rice already went down by P19 per kilo since its implementation as grains were sold for as high as P64 per kilo prior to the max SRP.

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

Based on monitoring of the DA in Metro Manila markets, the retail price of imported special rice ranged between P55 and P60 per kilo; imported premium rice, between P48 and P51 per kilo; imported well milled rice, between P43 and P46 per kilo; and imported regular milled rice, between P33 and P45 per kilo.

Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) board chairman and former agriculture secretary Leonardo Montemayor has blamed the unlimited entry of cheap imports as the primary reason for the drastic drop in palay prices during the ongoing dry season harvest.

Montemayor noted that farmers are forced to sell freshly harvested palay for as low as P14 per kilo.

“The strategy (of implementing EO 62) largely failed as importers and traders pocketed most of the savings from the tariff cuts instead of passing them on to consumers,” he said.

Rice imports in 2024 ballooned to 4.8 million metric tons.

“Palay traders are anticipating that the prices of imported rice will continue to fall, so they are playing safe by buying low from farmers,” Montemayor added.

Montemayor reiterated the farmers’ groups call to return the tariff rate to 35 percent, saying it will not unduly raise rice prices given the downtrend in import prices.

The Tariff Commission conducted a hearing on March 28 to discuss the petition to scrap EO 62.

At the same time, Montemayor asked the DA to address the drop in palay prices instead of belying reports of low prices and farmer suicides.

“It is sad that the DA, instead of commiserating with the plight of farmers, has blamed them for allegedly spreading fake news,” Montemayor said.

He challenged DA officials to go out of their air-conditioned offices and talk directly to rice farmers.

Montemayor criticized the apparent unpreparedness of the DA in helping farmers during the current harvest, as evidenced by the inability of the National Food Authority (NFA) to absorb farmers’ crops due to the congestion of the agency’s warehouses, lack of drying and other post-harvest facilities, and limited procurement budget.

Chicken, eggs up next

After rice, Tiu Laurel said that the high retail prices of chicken and eggs are next on his agenda.

“It’s normal that the retail price of other commodities will increase because there is a shift in the markets. Let’s say for pork, once there is an increase, consumers will shift to chicken, fish. That’s the main cause but of course we are still studying, I am coordinating with United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA),” he said.

Based on DA’s monitoring in Metro Manila markets, the retail price of chicken has reached as high as P240 per kilo while the retail price of eggs ranged between P7 and P9 per piece.

“I am looking at the trends first but more or less, for pork and rice, the retail price has already gone down. We are looking into it, we are coordinating with UBRA,” Tiu Laurel said.

Tiu Laurel said that as early as January, he has been warning on the possible increase in the retail price of eggs.

He added that the chicken layers were affected by diseases and hot temperatures.

“There is also big demand (because of the elections) but we should be okay,” he noted,

Tiu Laurel said that the eggs would not reach P10 per piece as the farmgate price ranged between P6 and P6.20 per piece.

‘People are hungry’

Meanwhile, Watchdog group Bantay Bigas yesterday said that the government failed to address hunger in the country amid a sharp increase in the incidents of involuntary hunger in the past three months.

Bantay Bigas spokesperson Cathy Estavillo said the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, which said at least 27.2 percent of Filipino families – or approximately 7.5 million households – experienced involuntary hunger in the past three months, exposed the government’s failure to ensure food security.

The SWS said the country’s hunger rate sharply increased this month, reaching its highest level since the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020.

“The government continues to open the agriculture to foreign control and depend on food importation, resulting in the worsening lack of food security for the people,” Estavillo said.

“The income of the farmers is not enough to support their daily food requirement. The cost of food has been increasing but the wages of the workers and farmers remained low. This only shows that the economic and agriculture programs of the Marcos government are not effective,” she added.

Estavillo pushed for urgent and decisive actions, including direct government support for farmers through production subsidies, higher farmgate prices and free irrigation.

Source : msn