MANILA – Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said Monday he has the support of the National Food Authority (NFA), Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), and Department of Agriculture (DA) for price setting and price ceiling schemes on certain agricultural products.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) chief said NFA and SRA approved the initiative of his agency to allow retailers and traders with retailing outlets or retailing partners to import well-milled rice and refined sugar.
The government will only allow the retailers and traders to import these commodities if they guarantee to sell well-milled rice at PHP38 per kilogram and PHP50 per kilo for sugar, the price set by DTI for this products.
For rice, Lopez said the NFA Council also agreed to the proposed volume of 350,000 metric tons that can be imported by retailers and traders. The said volume is good for a 20-day stock, according to him.
He added that major supermarket operators Robinsons and Puregold have expressed their interests to join the program.
The DTI is also in talks with the group of supermarket operators, Philippine Consumer Centric Traders Association, to be part of the price setting scheme for rice.
Aside from these supermarkets, the government is open to those who are interested to in this program, Lopez said.
“They realized the speed that this can be done if we allow the private sector, especially the retailers, and again this is allowed for traders with a retailing outlet or a retailing partner,” said Lopez.
Earlier, DTI partnered with NFA and Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association (PAGASA) to allow member supermarkets of PAGASA to sell NFA rice still at PHP27 per kilo.
“With this new importation plus this program with the retailers and traders, this will have an immediate impact on prices of rice,” Lopez said in Filipino. “Hopefully, [this will] pull down the prices [of rice].”
He said the first shipment is expected to arrive next month.
The same scheme will be implemented for sugar in order to make the PHP50-per-kilo refined sugar available in the market.
Lopez said the SRA suggested that retailers can directly buy sugar from millers and refineries.
“SRA will give a list of millers and refineries where retailers can directly buy to meet the price of PHP50 so we can bring it back to the market,” he said, adding that this will benefit consumers.
“For the end-users or the industry users, they will just simply apply to SRA. Today, they will start accepting the bids for permits for the importation of sugar,” the DTI chief added.
Meanwhile, Lopez said DTI and DA will have an agreement for a “moving price ceiling” on chicken that will be updated every three days.
The moving price ceiling scheme for chicken sets a maximum markup of PHP50 per kilo from farm gate prices to retail prices, Lopez explained. (/PNA)
