By Madelaine Miraflor and Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat The National Food Authority (NFA) will impose a suggested retail price (SRP) for rice effective the end of October in a bid to address the rising cost of the main staple food, while Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) will sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to impose moving price ceiling on chicken. “The price range (for rice) will be determined in a meeting that will be held on October 18 with the stakeholders, millers, traders, and farmers,” said Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol, who is also the chairman of the NFA Council. The NFA will also ban the sale of rice under its commercial brand names. Piñol said that from now on, all rice sold in the retail outlets will be properly identified as local rice or imported rice. Under such plan, there will only be four classifications of rice to be sold in the country – regular milled rice, well-milled rice, whole grain head rice, and special rice. While rice variety could still be specified, the government will no longer allow the branding of rice like “Sinandomeng,” “Dinorado,” and the like. “The NFA Council will set guidelines on the proper identification of imported rice and local rice in the market to protect the consumers. For so long, rice outlets in the public markets and even supermarkets have been involved in the mislabelling of rice to justify the high prices,” Piñol said. “Sinandomeng, Angelica, Jasmine, and Dinorado are among the common names given to commercial rice sold in the market at prices as high as P55 to P60 per kilo. But the truth is, aside from Dinorado and Jasmine, there is no such thing as ‘Sinandomeng’ or ‘Angelica’ rice varieties,” he added. Chicken price For chicken, the DTI-DA MOA will ensure a maximum price cap of P50 (from farm gate to selling price). The DTI has already met with market masters in various areas to ensure observance of the price cap, which will be updated every three days. The price ceiling for chicken will be implemented in two days. Moving price cap on pork will follow, Lopez said. Sugar price On sugar, the DTI has identified two measures to ease supply of sugar by allowing retailers direct purchases from local millers as long as they will sell at P50 per kilo. It will also allow retailers and traders with retailing outlets to import sugar provided they sign an undertaking that the sugar will be sold at P50 per kilo for refined sugar. Meanwhile, the government has allowed major grains retailers to directly import rice. As a start, they can import as much as 350,000 metric tons (MT) of the country's main staple food, on top of the additional 750,000 MT of rice that the NFA was ordered to import within this quarter. Piñol said the NFA Council, the highest policy-making body of the state run grains agency, already approved “in principle” the proposal of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to allow major retailers to directly import rice. The decision was made during the NFA Council meeting Monday, the second to be convened after the NFA, along with the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) and the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA), was placed under the DA. The plan to import more rice was first announced by Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez. In an earlier interview, Lopez said Piñol was amenable to DTI's proposal because this means faster distribution and a guarantee that low-priced commodities will reach the consumers. “DTI will develop the procedure,” Lopez said earlier, adding that the agency already invited major supermarket chains to conduct the importation program on the condition that they will sell it here for P38 per kilo, the pre-inflation price of the main staple food before it went up to P44 to P45 a kilo. Rice prices ease The prices of rice have generally eased as farmers begin harvesting their year-end yields, data from Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed. During the fourth week of September, the wholesale trade of well-milled rice posted lower price. Compared to the previous week's level of P46.06 per kilogram (/kg), the average wholesale price of well-milled rice went down by 0.04 percent to P46.04/kg . But compared to previous year, such price is still higher by 17.12 percent. At the retail trade, the average price of well-milled rice at P49.37/kg inched up by 0.41 percent from P49.17/kg in the previous week. Compared to the previous year's price level of P42.27/kg, this was higher by 16.80 percent. During the last week of September, lower prices were noted for both wholesale and retail trades of regular milled rice. The average wholesale price of regular milled rice in this particular week went down by 0.51 percent to P43.12/kg. Compared to the price in the same period of the previous year, it climbed by 21.06 percent. Quoted at P45.83/kg this week, the average retail price of regular-milled rice likewise dropped by 0.07 percent compared to its level a week ago. Still, it is higher by 20.45 percent from the P38.05/kg price a year ago. After series of increases, farm gate price of palay also dropped during the same period.