CLARK FREEPORT – The prevailing high prices of rice in markets nationwide despite rice from abroad is proof that importation of the cereal is not the solution to the country’s problem on the staple food.
“The high prices of rice in the market today are proof that importation cannot stop and is not the solution to skyrocketing rice prices. The theory that it can stop high prices is fake news that the NFA (National Food Authority) and the Duterte government are trying to foist on the consuming public,” Anakpawis Partylist Rep. Ariel Casilao said in a statement yesterday “Now many are immensely suffering because of high prices and unstable supply of rice,” he said.
Consumer groups Bantay Bigas and the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, in another statement yesterday, blamed the NFA for the current rice supply shortage and high rice prices.
They accused the NFA of “creating an artificial supply shortage to cover up its racket of selling its rice to private traders and justify rice importation.”
Casilao cited government data indicating average rice prices have been on a steady rise. “The price of regular milled rice was P38.04 per kilogram last year and in the first quarter of the year, it jacked up to P39.74 per kilogram for a P1.70 increase.
Last June, the price moved up to P40.69 per kilogram and in the past six months of 2018, the prices of rice have already increased twenty four times at a net increase of P2.65,” he noted.
This, as Bantay Bigas and KMP lamented that NFA’s support price to farm gate price remains at P17 per kilogram of palay.
“The NFA’s lower buying price of palay has forced farmers to sell their products to private rice traders because their demand for the NFA to increase its buying price to match the off er of private rice traders has remained unheeded by the Duterte government. Through such increase, the NFA will have enhanced supply of local palay at the same time boost local palay farmer’s income as well as influence rice prices in the market.
The groups also noted that from 2013 to 2018, cumulative price of retail rice increased by P6.30 per kilogram. On the other hand, farm gate price of palay increased only by P2 – P3 per kilogram in the same period.
Casilao said that the proposed tarrification pushed by Congress will be “the final nail in the coffin to kill the local rice industry. It will endanger not only our local rice industry but also food security, self-sufficiency, poverty reduction and access to affordable rice for the ordinary consumers mostly the poor.”
At present, commercial rice ranges from P43 to P57 per kilo, while regular milled rice is P38 per kilo.
“The NFA’s P27 per kilo could hardly be found. Wherever it could be found, it is sold at a limit of 3 kilos per consumer due to lack of supply,” Casilao said.
“In this third SONA of Pres. Duterte, it would be shameless to include in his report how his government confront the rice supply problem that affecting not only farmers but also the poor. His government just like past governments has become an agent of neoliberal policies that are destroying our agriculture, particularly the rice industry. The only way to reverse these ill-effects is the withdrawal of the country from the World Trade Organization and for the government to pass measures that support our local agriculture, like the genuine agrarian land reform, rice industry development and the accelerated irrigation facility development,” Casilao also said.
