Gov’t mulls imposing SRPs on agri products

MANILA, Philippines — The government is studying the imposition of suggested retail prices (SRPs) on selected agricultural commodities to effectively bring down their prices in the market.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar said during the signing of the implementing rules and regulations of the Sagip Saka Act on Monday that the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) were jointly studying the use of SRPs on food items such as fish and rice.

This developed as industry groups complained that the price of select fish species in the market like milk fish are currently above the prevailing farm-gate price, while rice prices have yet to go down significantly despite the steady decline of palay prices.

“We are in discussion with DTI whether SRP now is the way forward to further bring down prices in the market,” Dar said. —Karl R. Ocampo