The Department of Agriculture (DA) may declare a food security emergency for rice by Tuesday of the first week of February, according to the agency’s Secretary, Francisco Tiu Laurel.
“Well, my office just received the resolution yesterday while I was still in the US, which I have to sign as part of the board. Then, probably by Tuesday, we will likely be declaring the rice emergency,” Tiu Laurel told reporters, referring to the National Price Coordinating Council’s (NPCC) resolution, endorsing the declaration.
However, the DA still needs to evaluate the NPCC resolution.
Officials have said that declaring a food emergency will enable local governments in Metro Manila to acquire rice stocks from the National Food Authority (NFA) for only ₱36 a kilo, to be sold in public markets at ₱38 a kilo.
“That is very welcome dahil mababawasan yung mga laman ng mga warehouses at matutuwa na rin ang ating mga farmers na makakabili na ang NFA ng bigas mula sa kanila kasi meron ng paglalagyan,” Tiu Laurel said.
(That is very welcome because warehouse stock will be reduced, and our farmers will also be happy that the NFA will be able to buy rice from them as they have room to store the grain.)
“And releasing 300,000 metric tons of rice to the market within six months, I think, will soften the market and hopefully bumaba ng kaunti pa ‘yung presyo ng bigas (the price of rice will lower a little more),” he added.
A month from now, the imported rice prices are also projected to drop to only ₱49 per kilo.
During times of short supply or unusually high prices, the DA has been authorized by the amended Rice Tariffication Law to declare a food security emergency on rice in response. Additionally, the agency has revealed that making use of NFA’s stock would help in lowering prices and clear out their warehouses ahead of harvest.
