To prevent profiteering and other illegal trade practices, the Department of Agriculture, or DA, said it plans to include rice among the food products under a suggested retail price schedule.

A key DA official said the agency still needs to consult with stakeholders before embarking on the SRP plan for the staple grain.

"You cannot just issue an SRP without consulting all the stakeholders, from the consumer and producer groups to the traders and millers. All of them should be consulted when setting a suggested retail price," DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said.

SRPs, which manufacturers provide, allow consumers and the government to determine the correct price level of a commodity, although the scheme is different from the outright price control or ceiling that retailers are required to follow.

In a radio interview, De Mesa said the imposition of SRPs, not price ceilings, will be taken up in the consultations.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued Executive Order 39 in September last year, imposing a price ceiling of P41 per kilogram for regular-milled rice and P45 for well-milled rice. The cap was lifted a month after when grain prices stabilized.

The Philippine Statistics Authority, however, reported high rice inflation last December, which prompted the DA to call for a meeting with industry participants.

Republic Act 7581, or the Price Act, mandates consumer protection by stabilizing basic commodities' prices against undue increases, De Mesa said.

He noted that the DA needed to assess the producers' and traders' industrial processes and expenditures and the retailers' expenses to fix the SRP on rice.

"We have to look at the composition, how the producers' group produced the palay until it became rice. Then, on the traders' side, what were their expenses for warehousing, milling, and drying? For the retailers, what were their expenses? When we compare all these factors, we can see the price range," De Mesa said.

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