Prices of rice seen to stabilize in August

CONSUMERS can expect the prices of rice to go down and stabilize when the second harvest season starts in August.

National Food Authority (NFA)-Davao City manager Virgilio Alerta, in an interview, said they are expecting rice production to double and will able to supply the market demand during the second harvest season from August to December.

“Once the harvest season begins, the price of commercial rice will slowly go down,” Alerta said.

He said the increase in the price of commercial rice is a natural occurrence during the lean months of April to July.

Alerta said during the lean month season, there is lower supply of rice which could not fully serve the needs of the consumers.

Based on the monitoring of NFA-Davao City, regular milled rice is at P36, well milled rice at P40, and special rice at P45. Also in a seperate monitoring by the Philippine Statistics Authority – Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (PSA-BAS) 11, well milled rice is from P43 to P48, regular milled rice is from P37 to P42, and NFA rice is from P27 to P32.

He also said they are flooding the market with NFA rice to be able to serve the needs of the consumers who cannot afford commercial rice. He said by adding more NFA rice to the market, will help prevent the further increase of price of commercial rice.

NFA-Davao City, which also covers Island Garden City of Samal (Igacos), has 56 accredited outlets inside public markets, 66 outlets in different barangays, and 11 rice outlets in chapels.

Alerta also said based on their monitoring, they have not recorded any hoarding of rice or repacking of NFA rice. He said they are regularly monitoring rice outlets if there are any instances of hoarding.