Targeted MSRP on imported premium rice beginning March 1 - DA
Metro Manila, Philippines - The maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) on imported premium rice will be targeted to urban centers beginning March 1, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
The MSRP, which is based on the production cost, will be lowered further from P52 to P49 per kilogram. The DA previously set its implementation nationwide by mid-February.
“In many provincial areas, we’ve seen prices of imported rice already lower than the MSRP, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said. “So we will apply it more selectively.”
The MSRP will be implemented in Metro Manila, and key cities and urban centers including Calabarzon, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Cagayan de Oro City, and Zamboanga City, said Agriculture spokesperson Arnel de Mesa.
“‘Yong pag nationwide is in the process on the systems para maayos,” De Mesa explained on the previous nationwide MSRP.
[Translation: The nationwide MSRP was set to improve the process on the systems.]
“We will review the numbers in the coming days to determine if there's room to lower the MSRP further,” Laurel said. “As of now, there could be scope for additional reductions, but we’ll have to see.”
The DA said the landed cost of 5 percent broken rice was quoted at $490 per metric ton on Feb. 21.
Laurel earlier projected that the price of imported rice could drop below P50 per kilogram, “provided world market prices remain stable, with a maximum landed cost of $550 per metric ton for 5 percent broken rice.”
The DA implemented the MSRP on imported premium rice at P58 per kilogram only in Metro Manila in January. The agency then announced its plan to widen the coverage by February.
The policy was introduced after a seeming failure to significantly bring down market price levels with last year’s tariff cut on the imported grain.
Meanwhile, San Juan City is now selling five-kilogram bags of well-milled rice from the National Food Authority for P165, or P33 per kilogram. The local government began releasing the stocks only in sacks on Monday.
“Wala pong pera talaga na bumili ng one sack of rice kaya 15 kilos lang para makasave ako para pambaon ng bata, pambili ng pagkain,” said Joan Juan, a consumer.
[Translation: I really don’t have the budget to buy one sack of rice. That’s why I’m buying 15 kilograms to save for food costs and my children’s allowance.]
San Juan in Metro Manila was the first to sell to its constituents the cheap rice under the food security emergency.
