FILE Photo taken from agriculture-ph.com
MANILA, Philippines — Commercial rice prices have started to go down after last week’s price increases, according to the National Food Authority (NFA).
In a statement released Thursday, the NFA said prices of commercial premium quality rice went down from P1,920 per sack to P1,880 at the Intercity in Bulacan.
Meanwhile, prices of medium quality rice has gone down from P1,820 per sack to P1,780, and imported premium quality rice from P1,800 per sack to P1,750.
The food agency reminded the public that they sold regular milled rice at P27 per kilogram and well-milled rice at P32/kg.
Increasing rice prices were first reported after the onslaught of tropical storm Labuyo but government agencies and farmer groups said it should not have happened because there was no rice shortage.
On Monday, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said they were building cases against smugglers and hoarders out to manipulate market prices by creating an artificial rice shortage.
Alcala said there were reports of people being told to line up at NFA outlets to make it appear that there was a rice shortage.
The NFA also said that prices were expected to go down after the harvest season starts near the end of the month.
NFA Administrator Orlan Calayag said in the statement that their supervisors would continue to monitor the markets to “ensure that no NFA rice will be overpriced or diverted and sold as commercial rice.”
The food agency said they still have 1.7 million metric tons of rice to last 51 days, in addition to their intensified palay procurement in various areas of the country where farmers have started to harvest their crops.
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