WITH the arrival of imported rice from Vietnam and Thailand, Malacañang expects the prices of rice in the market to further go down.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said shipments totaling 250,000 metric tons of rice have arrived from Vietnam and Thailand at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales.
"However, the rice in Subic has yet to be unloaded because of last week's incessant rains," Roque said in a statement early Tuesday, June 19.
Once unloaded, the imported rice will be marketed as government or National Food Authority (NFA) rice and sold at P27 to P32 per kilo, Roque said.
He said monitoring by the Department of Agriculture (DA) showed that commercial rice is sold for as low as P36 to P38 in the market. High-quality well-milled commercial rice averages P50 per kilo while brown rice fetch as much as P100 per kilo.
"Baka patuloy pa po ang pagbaba nyan dahil yung pagtaas naman eh bahagi ng dahilan doon ay nag-panic doon sa perception na naubusan daw ng bigas na hindi naman nainthindihan ng marami. Marami pang commercial rice. Ang naubos lang ay NFA rice. So ngayon marami nang NFA rice, lalo pang bababa ang presyo ng bigas," Roque said in a press conference Monday.
Government's economic advisers have been pushing for the approval of a rice tariffication bill in Congress as part of agricultural reforms.
Tariffication refers to the replacement of the quantitative restrictions on rice imports with tariff, which will allow the private sector to respond more effectively to market signals. (MVI/SunStar Philippines)