NFA tightens monitoring on price spike of commercial rice
The National Food Authority (NFA) in Surigao branch office, under the supervision of Dennis T. Hibaya, took the initiative to conduct price monitoring and assessment on commercial rice in the market, as covered by its area of responsibility.
Accordingly, the rice vendors in the province of Surigao del Sur unanimously responded that there is no rice shortage in the market and supply of rice remains stable in the province.
Nevertheless, the vendors believed that the spike in the price of the commercial rice may have been triggered by the palay harvest that started since July 2023 in certain areas, however both local and outside buyers coming from other regions have outbid each other to procure the palay resulting in high ex-farm prices and in return increasing the prices of commercial rice in the market.
Compliant to price tag guideline, the commercial rice in the province of Surigao del Sur visibly showed that price that ranged from P50 to P60 per kilo, such as during the monitoring made on August 24, 2023, at Tandag City public market, with almost P10 difference from the previous week.
It can be
recalled, that on June 27 of the current year, price monitoring was conducted
by the said office on commercial rice at Luha Public Market in Tandag City and
it revealed a step up of P1 per kilo only, which was contrary to what was
circulating for an increase of P2 to P3 per kilo.
NFA provided the following findings from its most current assessment and monitoring stating that locally sourced well-milled rice had an average price of P57 per kilo, while other variety were sold from P53 to P59 per kilo.
The imported premium rice, on the other hand was unanimously priced by all rice vendors at P60 per kilo as the highest price, while the lowest tag was at P58 per kilo, the report said.
As for the regular milled rice, the NFA Surigao branch office further revealed that this variety is no longer available in the market as its inventory showed complete consumption.
The white corn grits was priced at P46 per kilo and displayed by one rice vendor only and sold at retail due to low stock inventory, making it an uncommon commodity in the market.
To conclude, the office considered minimal price changes to none from first occurrence of the reported spike, to wit:
For imported Premium Rice
Low - P58/kg
High -
P60/kg
Ave. -
P60/kg
For local well-milled rice
Low -
P53/kg
High -
P59/kg
Ave. -
P57/kg
For regular milled rice
*not
available
White corn grits at P46/kg
True to its mandate, the NFA Surigao branch office committed to continue and sustain the conduct of price monitoring of commercial rice to ensure that the country's staple food is made available and affordable at all times to the general public. (NGPB, PIA-Surigao del Sur)
