The proposal to restore the National Food Authority’s mandate to purchase and sell rice at affordable prices is supported by the Department of Agriculture .
The DA Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa remarked in an interview on Super Radyo dzBB that their support of the proposal comes in the heels of the government’s lack of response to situations when the price of rice gets really high. On the other hand, regular milled imported commercial rice costs P48 to P51 per kilo, while regular-milled at P51 to P54.“These amendments to RTL—we are pounding on this because the President told us that we have to find ways on how to bring down rice prices,” Romualdez told reporters in an interview.
He added that “The selling price should not be too low, like around P25 per kilo because the NFA will lose too much. That is also one of the reasons why the RTL was passed because the NFA incurred too much loss.”