Retailers allowed to import rice

The National Food Authority (NFA) Council approved the proposal of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to have selected retailers and traders import a total of 350,000 metric tons of rice that will be sold at a set price.

In an interview, Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez said the policy-making body of NFA agreed to this special program even though DTI has yet to submit a formal proposal for it.

In essence, the program will have selected retailers sell rice at P38 a kilo, regardless if prices start stabilizing or not. Traders with retail outlets can also join in the program as well, he said.

So far, Lopez said he has already received a “positive indication” from supermarket chains Puregold and Robinsons. It remains to be seen if this will translate to an actual commitment.

The actual identities of the program participants, as well as their allocation of the imports, have not been fully disclosed yet.

“In terms of volume, [the NFA Council] agreed also on the 350,000 metric tons. The approval will be given first to DTI on behalf of these participants in this program,” he said.

Shipments should start arriving in phases sometime next month, according to the trade chief, who has been pushing to give the private sector a bigger role in helping curb the high prices of the staple.

DTI’s earlier efforts of helping ease inflation through tapping supermarket group Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association (Pagasa) Inc. have been problematic after reaching deadlocks with NFA on certain issues.

NFA wanted Pagasa member-companies to pay a hefty price to sell NFA rice even though it was the government which sought the group’s help. Moreover, the fee was not explicitly stated in their agreement.

For this special program, however, Lopez said it would be seamless.

While the previous proposal sought help in selling NFA rice, this program will sell commercial rice, which he previously estimated to account for half of total consumption.

Participants to this program would be selling well-milled rice, Lopez added, noting that the staple will be “up to 25-percent broken.”

The government has been seeking to flood the market with rice in a bid to lower the cost of the staple, which helped push inflation to its highest in nearly a decade as of September.

“This will be a big help because while the importation has been coming in, we think that [the current] volume may not be enough because the prices have not really gone down,” he said.