Bureau of Plant Industry seeks P1.5B for food safety labs, rice quality testing expansion

By Pierce Oel A. Montalvo, Researcher

THE Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) said it requested a P1.5-billion budget for 2027 to establish food safety laboratories in 10 regions, Director Gerald Glenn F. Panganiban said.

The proposed budget includes P55 million per laboratory for nitrite and nitrate testing equipment. The program forms part of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) broader food safety infrastructure expansion, Mr. Panganiban said by phone.

Each food safety laboratory will be equipped with  rice quality analyzers, rice sample dividers, rice moisture analyzers, and detectors for microbiological contaminants, pesticides and chemical residues.

The DA is currently seeking to acquire rice quality analyzers (RQAs) for daily testing at retailer level to monitor whether imported rice is being sold as domestically produced to exploit price differentials arising from price caps imposed on imported rice.

Through the BPI, the DA plans to equip food safety laboratories in each region with RQAs. Each setup is estimated to cost over P4 million.

Currently, only Quezon City has an RQA, with Baguio, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao to follow soon.

The acquisition supports implementation of the amended Agricultural Tariffication Law through the agency’s Plant Product Safety Services Division.

The BPI plans to collaborate with the DA’s Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS) to enforce daily testing among rice retailers.

“We will implement a random daily sampling of three to five retailers per market,” Junibert E. De Sagun, director of AMAS, said.

Assistant Secretary Genevieve E. Velicaria-Guevarra has noted that rice retailers could sell imported rice as local rice, effectively circumventing the P50 price cap, making testing infrastructure critical for enforcement.