DA ramps up market surveillance, supply measures to curb food price pressures
MANILA – The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday announced tighter market monitoring and stronger interventions to help temper food inflation, following the latest inflation data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
PSA figures showed overall inflation eased to 1.8 percent in December 2025, with food and non-alcoholic beverages remaining among the main contributors. Food inflation was largely driven by higher prices of rice and vegetables, which rose to 1.2 percent in December from 0.3 percent in November.
In a statement, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the uptick in food prices was influenced by increased holiday demand and disruptions in production and supply caused by adverse weather conditions.
“This means the DA must move faster—tightening market monitoring, accelerating production, promptly deploying available food stocks, and expanding safety-net support such as the PHP20 rice program to blunt price spikes,” Tiu Laurel said.
The DA committed to fast-tracking the expansion of the PHP20-per-kilogram rice program under the Marcos administration’s “Benteng Bigas Meron (BBM) Na” initiative, with the goal of covering 15 million households or about 60 million Filipinos nationwide.
Tiu Laurel added that the program’s rollout will soon be broadened to include low- to middle-income families, further strengthening food access and affordability.
Based on the DA-Bantay Presyo (price watch), the prevailing price of premium or 5-percent broken imported rice in Metro Manila is currently at PHP50 per kilogram, with prices ranging from PHP48 to PHP52 per kilogram. Imported well-milled rice is selling at PHP46 per kilogram, while imported regular-milled rice is priced at PHP42 per kilogram.
For locally produced rice, premium varieties are retailing at PHP50 per kilogram, well-milled rice at PHP45 per kilogram, and regular-milled rice at PHP40 per kilogram.
— NPO News Team | PNA-PR
