Rice prices to drop by mid-March, NFA says

MANILA, Philippines - Amid government assurances rice prices may go down by mid-March, buyers are queuing up for rice in National Food Authority (NFA) stores in Central Luzon, a radio report said Tuesday. Radio dzRH reported that many of the buyers said the high prices of commercial rice, which went up to P30 or more per kilo, drove them to line up for rice at NFA stores. The report said queues were reported in Nueva Ecija and Aurora provinces, where consumers also lined up at parish centers and "Tindahan Natin" centers of the social welfare department for subsidized rice. For its part, the regional NFA office instructed its managers to monitor rice supplies closely. On Monday, agriculture secretary Arthur Yap said the high price of rice was due to the high price of fertilizer and other inputs in the last planting season. Meanwhile, NFA spokesman Rex Estoperez said in a radio interview Tuesday they expect rice prices to start going down in mid-March. "Expect natin hanggang mid-March bababa ang presyo dahil meron tayong summer harvest [We expect prices to go down mid-March because of our summer harvest]," he said in an interview on dzXL radio. He said the NFA is ready to intensify its distribution if the prices do not go down by mid-March. On the other hand, Estoperez said the NFA has already initially imported 500,000 metric tons of rice for the lean months from July to September. If we need to, we will bring it out to stabilize prices in the market, he said. - GMANews.TV