The Department of Agriculture (DA) is looking into the rising prices of local well-milled and regular-milled rice in the market.
In an interview during DZRH's Dos Por Dos on Tuesday, Nov. 28, Asec. Arnel De Mesa said DA's monitoring showed that the price of well-milled local rice went up to as high as Php 62 per kilo from as low as Php 45 per kilo.
Meanwhile, De Mesa said that the price of imported rice went down from Php 57 per kilo to Php 45 per kilo.
"Nagbaliktad sila. Iyon yung tinitignan namin ngayon. Kailangan silipin bakit meron ganito when in fact, for the past many weeks and months, mataas ang presyo ng imported," he said.
"Alam natin na mahal ang imported na bigas dahil mahal ang kuha nila. Sa Vietnam, hindi bumababa ng US$ 600,000 per metric ton," the DA official added.
De Mesa does not dimiss the possibility of price manipulation in the rice market.
"Yung local milled natin kung tutuusin nga ay hindi dapat siya ganoon kataas kasi nabili karamihan, more than 90 percent, nabili nitong nakalipas na wet season na hindi tataas sa Php 23," he said.
