P29 rice program to reach VisMin by August — DA chief

Agriculture Secretary Francisco  Tiu Laurel, Jr., expressed plans to expand the P29 rice per kilo program to more Kadiwa sites outside Luzon by August.

“This week, we’re already up to 13 KADIWA outlets. By August 1, hopefully, we will have 23 stores plus three provincial areas. We will have one in Cebu, maybe Maguindanao,” he said in a farmers’ assistance distribution event in Aurora province led by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Laurel also showed optimism about lower rice prices at Kadiwa centers, as staple grain prices globally are expected to fall early next year.

"Then, as we go along, we will widen the coverage and may even try to lessen the price of the P29 rice in KADIWA stores nationwide, hopefully by the first quarter of next year,” he said.

Early this month, DA initially launched Program 29 (P29), in which the government sells aging buffer rice stocks for P29 per kilo, assured to be safe for human consumption.

It kicked off at 10 KADIWA sites located in the offices of the Bureau of Animal Industry and National Irrigation Administration in Quezon City; the Bureau of Plant Industry in Manila; Food Terminal Inc. in Taguig City; PhilFIDA in Las Pinas; Caloocan City; Valenzuela City; and Brgy. Fortune and BF City (BFCT) in Marikina City; and San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan.

Last Tuesday, 9 July,  DA Assistant Secretary for Consumer and Legislative Affairs Genevieve Velicaria-Guevarra announced that the P29 will also be launched in  Kadiwa centers in Malabon, Navotas, and Nangka, Marikina. 

Beneficiaries of the program include senior citizens, single parents, persons with disabilities, and beneficiaries of the government’s 4Ps program.

Moreover, DA said on Monday that another initiative, the Rice for All Program, where the staple grain will be sold to the general public for a price ranging from P45 per kilo to P48 per kilo or lower, will be implemented alongside P29 in Kadiwa centers this July.

Rice, pork prices seen to decline

Laurel noted that DA has gradually managed to pull down the price of basic agricultural goods like sugar, eggs, chicken, and fish compared to their levels last year.

Meanwhile, he said prices of pork and rice remain 'stubbornly high’, which he expects to ease in the coming months.

A controlled vaccination against African Swine Fever will begin in the next two weeks, the DA earlier disclosed.

Laurel said this event would eventually allow greater movement of hogs to ease supply constraints and should help lower their price in the local market.

As for rice,  the Agri chief said its global prices are seen to decline with the end of El Niño, which could ease demand from importing countries and eventually increase global production. 

The expected lifting of India’s exports of non-basmati rice could also ease supply pressures, he added.