DA lists factors favoring lifting of rice price cap

An interagency committee has laid the predicate—declining prices and increasing supply–for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to lift the price cap on rice he implemented last month to curb inflation and buy time to go after grain smuggler and hoarders.

Executive Order 39 that took effect on 5 September placed a price ceiling of P41 per kilo of regular-milled rice and P45 for well-milled rice.

At a briefing in Malacanang after the meeting of representatives from agriculture and trade and industry departments as well as sectoral councils, Bureau of Plant Industry director Gerald Glen Panganiban said the President was informed of recent declines in both domestic and global prices of rice on prospects of bumper harvest in the last quarter of the month.

Panganiban told reporters that based on supply projections, the available rice supply will increase to 2.78 million metric tons at the end of October from 1.95 million metric tons in September. The October inventory is enough for 74 days consumption compared with 52 days in September, he said.

He said the Department of Agriculture also expects a bumper rice harvest this month and in November. “So the public can expect a stable supply of our main staple,” he said.

Despite their recommendations, Panganiban said it is premature to say price cap will soon be lifted as other factors may be considered by President Marcos, who is also acting secretary of agriculture. “We just recommend…it is president who will be deciding on it,” he added.

A steady increase in the price of rice despite sufficient domestic supply has alarmed the government, forcing the imposition of the price ceiling on the grain amid suspicion of price manipulation. Several rice warehouses have been raided and tens of thousands of rice bags confiscated and distributed to the poor.