Palace expects price of rice to go down with NFA rice in market

June 18, 2018

Malacanang said on Monday it expects the price of rice to go down now government-subsidized rice is in the market.

Citing a report from the Department of Agriculture, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said commercial rice is now at P36-P38 as a result of the arrival of the 250,000 metric tons of National Food Authority rice from Subic.

"However, the  rice in Subic has yet to be unloaded because of last week's incessant rains. Once unloaded, it will be sold at NFA price of P27-P32," he said.

"Now that there are lots of NFA rice, we expect that the price of rice will continue to go down," he said.

For about two months, there was no NFA rice in the market due to delay in importation.

The NFA Council, then led by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr., refused to approve NFA's request to import rice, saying there was sufficient commercial rice.

The government only imported rice when President Rodrigo Duterte sided with NFA head Jason Aquino.

Evasco was also removed as head of the NFA Council. Celerina Monte/DMS