MANILA -- The National Food Authority (NFA) said Thursday that it expects prices of commercial rice to go down by PHP3 per kilogram within a month as a result of government's measures to augment the staple's supply in the local market.
National Food Authority (NFA) Spokesperson Rex Estoperez told reporters on the sidelines of the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC) meeting that commercial rice with prices of PHP40 to PHP42 per kilo are expected to go down to PHP37 to 39/kilo very soon.
Estoperez said the NFA Council already increased the participation of subsidized rice in the market to 13 percent in August from the previous 7 percent. This was later increased further to 20 percent.
This means, from 76,000 bags of NFA rice available in the market in a day, the supply has gone up to 128,000 bags per day, the NFA official said.
“That’s what we are expecting two weeks to one month from now. Prices [of rice] will slightly soften,” he added.
He noted that the prices of rice could have gone down sooner, but Typhoon Ompong affected local production.
Aside from increasing the market participation of NFA rice, the country still has stock, with more imports to come, and supported by local production, Estoperez said.
He said the current inventory is at 2.3 million bags. Some 750,00 metric tons of imported rice are expected to arrive in the coming months.
Estoperez said that government expects to maintain a rice supply of six million bags until yearend. (PNA)
