DA starts crackdown on non-compliance with max SRP

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) started yesterday its crackdown on violators of the maximum suggested retail price (SRP) for imported rice and pork products.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said compliance with the max SRP remains low at 20 percent for imported rice and 30 percent for pork products.

De Mesa said personnel of the DA Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service would be conducting inspections in various Metro Manila markets.

“Almost every day the DA will conduct market operations, especially in areas where the retail price of pork is still high. We monitored (high retail prices of pork) in Manila, Mandaluyong City and Pasay City,” De Mesa said.

On March 10, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. ordered the implementation of max SRP of P350 per kilo on pork shoulder and P380 per kilo on pork belly after the retail price reached as high as P480 per kilo.

“We will trace where the pork came from. Once the origin of the pork is established, the DA can stop the issuance of shipping permit. In this way, pork with high prices will not reach the markets,” Tiu Laurel said.

On imported rice, De Mesa said compliance on the P45 max SRP was still low at only 20 percent since it was implemented on March 31.

“We started at a low level of compliance. We know that the P45 max SRP is the lowest so we are still determining the cause. But based on our experience on the early stage of the implementation of the max SRP, we expect the compliance to still go up,” De Mesa said.

Based on DA monitoring, the prevailing market prices were at P45 per kilo for imported premium rice, P44.50 for imported well-milled rice and P40 for imported regular milled rice.

“The highest retail price of imported rice was still at P55 per kilo and the lowest was P44 per kilo,” De Mesa said.

Pateros and Trabajo market in Manila were among those with high retail prices of rice, the DA reported.