“The Aquino administration’s continuing policy of rice importation and his continued coddling of rice cartels is the main culprit in the shrinking prices of palay,” the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said in a statement yesterday.
“The 2014 rice importation is a record-high. Aquino already surpassed Arroyo’s 2.1 million metric tons importation in 2010,” KMP said, warning that the country’s rice industry would collapse if this trend continues.
KMP Chair Rafael Mariano noted that the selling price of palay in Nueva Ecija has dropped to P14.50 per kilo of manually harvested grains and P14 per kilo for those harvested by machine.
He also reported that some traders have also stopped buying more palay because they still have enough stocks amid the arrival of rice imports.
“Farmers who shoulder the high costs of production are now confronted by the predicament of their losses. They are also facing the dilemma if they can still plant for the next planting season,” Mariano said.
He also expressed fears that “farmers will again run to usurers and unscrupulous traders in order to produce the rice and feed the nation.”
Mariano also cited reports that the “steep drop in palay prices, from the average P18 per kilo last harvest to the present P14 a kilo, is also being experienced in the Bicol region.”
“This is the result of the continuing arrival of the record- high 2.8 million metric tons of imported rice contracted by the Aquino government last year,” he said, recalling that “in August last year the Aquino government announced the importation of 1.2 million metric tons of rice.”
“Aside from the 1.2 million metric tons, another 500,000 metric tons were imported in September by the government allegedly to replenish its buffer stock, for a total of 1.7 million MT,” Mariano also said.
He noted that “If we include this 1.7 million metric tons to the corruption-riddled importation of 800,000 metric tons during the first quarter of 2014 and the 350,000 metric tons under the minimum access volume of the World Trade Organization, the Aquino government had a total of 2.850 million metric tons of rice imported in 2014.”
“Instead of pulling down rice prices, the arrival and release of imported rice in the local market led to the further shrinking of palay prices. Without government control on prices of commercial rice, the release of imported rice will further boost rice prices up,” Mariano said.
