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Josiah Antonio - The Philippine Star
February 21, 2026 | 12:00am
Workers weigh sacks of rice at a National Food Authority (NFA) warehouse in Valenzuela City on February 19, 2026.
Miguel De Guzman / The Philippine STAR
MANILA, Philippines — Stricter regulation is needed to curb the rising retail prices of rice, an agricultural group said yesterday.
Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) executive director Jayson Cainglet told The STAR that there is a problem in inefficiency and market concentration in the value chain.
“There is a big margin in the intermediaries. There is a disconnect between the farm gate to retail prices,” he said.
The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the retail price of regular milled rice went up to P45.54 per kilo from Feb. 1 to 5, higher than the P43.76 per kilo price recorded on Jan. 15 to 17.
Cainglet also noted a problem in the landed cost of imported and retail prices, stressing how market prices skyrocketed to P55 to P60.
“If we can subsidize consumers, why can’t we subsidize the farmers so that the bulk of supply is not in the hands of the private traders and millers,” he asked.
National Food Authority (NFA) administrator Larry Lacson admitted that while rice prices went up, they can only do so much in providing affordable rice.
Aside from the Department of Agriculture’s P20 per kilo rice program, the NFA also has auctions of aging rice stocks. But according to SINAG, these are insufficient.
“They (NFA) can procure two percent of the total harvest because they only have a budget of P9 billion. They could only do so much at two percent,” Cainglet said.
He urged the DA anew for stricter implementation of the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, holding those in the middle ground accountable.
