News Details

DA partners with major grocery chain for Rice for All, P29

NPO

•

February 1, 2025

PNA

MANILA – More Filipino consumers will enjoy greater access to cheaper rice options as the Department of Agriculture (DA) partnered with MerryMart Groceries Centers Inc. for the expansion of the Kadiwa ng Pangulo’s (KNP) Rice for All (RFA) and P29 programs.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. and MerryMart president and chief operating officer Ferdinand Sia signed the memorandum of understanding at the DoubleDragon Tower 1 in Pasay City on Friday.

“Today marks another significant milestone in our collective efforts to ensure that every Filipino has access to affordable and quality food. We are proud to announce the new partnership, our very first collaboration with a major grocery chain in the country, MerryMart Groceries,” Tiu Laurel said during the signing rites.

Sia, for his part, said their move is just a response to the DA’s call for collaboration with major supermarkets nationwide.

“The MerryMart’s role in supporting the DA’s Kadiwa ng Pangulo is just providing them units for where the rice will be put. This is our way of helping the government to help the people,” he said in an interview.

Under the partnership, the DA will supply MerryMart Groceries with RFA 5, or the 5 percent broken rice which sells at PHP45 per kilogram; RFA 25, or the 25 percent broken at PHP38/kg.; RFA 100, also known as Sulit rice or 100 percent broken at PHP36/kg.; and P29, or the aging but good quality rice stock of the National Food Authority sold to vulnerable sectors at PHP29/kg.

Tiu Laurel said there will be no additional cost on the part of the government for the space they will use in select MerryMart groceries.

The DA will also provide technical support to the grocery chain for the rollout of the KNP programs, he added.

The DA chief said they target to deliver the RFA and P29 rice supplies to MerryMart Groceries on the first or second week of February.

Besides MerryMart, the Food Terminal Incorporated (FTI) has already provided samples to other supermarket chains and organizations, including Robinsons, SM, Landmark, Uncle Johns, Puregold, and 7/11, among others.

MerryMart Groceries, meanwhile, is set to launch a subsidized sale of ‘good hope well-milled rice’ at PHP29/kg. for two months, to benefit more consumers and retailers through its MerryRice program.

“This is our way also of helping Filipinos. We know that rice is very important. So, this MerryRice program of MerryMart, aside from promoting business, we are also considering helping the community through their sari-sari stores,” Sia said.

Consumers or retailers may purchase the MerryRice in a 50-kg. sack for PHP1,450 through the MM Wholesale mobile application, with free delivery for every PHP10,000 and above worth of total purchase.

The program will run from Feb. 1 to March 31 in initial delivery areas that include Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan, Tarlac, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Zambales, Bataan, and Pampanga.