A “nationwide uproar” among rice farmers in the country has forced the government to act on the falling palay prices, a trend that could rob farmers of potential income worth P114 billion for the entire year.
The main culprit? The Rice Tarrification Law or Republic Act 11203 which legalized in March the unlimited entry of cheaper, imported rice into the Philippines.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol yesterday sought a meeting with Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Undersecretary Mercedita Sombilla to discuss the implementation of the Suggested Retail Price policy on commercial rice sold in the market based on the Price Act.
“With the National Food Authority stripped of its supervisory and regulatory powers over the rice industry, the Price Act is the only remaining instrument of government to rationalize the pricing of agricultural products in the market,” Piñol said.
This was after farmer leaders and rice industry stakeholders asked the Department of Agriculture during an impromptu consultation meeting to address the continuous decline in the prices of palay which was possibly triggered by the loopholes in RA 11203.
Piñol said the meeting took place amid the nationwide uproar among farmers who have been suffering since farm gate prices of paddy rice dropped to a record low of P12 per kilogram to P14 per kilogram in many parts of the country, a steep drop from an average of P20 per kilogram price for fresh palay earlier this year.
During the fourth week of June alone, the average farmgate price of palay continued to decline, falling by 0.3 percent to P17.85 per kilogram from previous week’s level of P17.90 per kilogram. This was a huge drop of 16.5 percent from the previous year’s same week level of P21.38 per kilogram.
But the thing is, the retail price of rice or the price that consumers are paying for to buy a kilo of the staple has remained the same, Aldrin Cardenas, a leader of a farmers’ cooperative in Tarlac, pointed out.
Based on their computation, the market prices of rice – which was expected to drop by P7 per kilogram with the entry of more imported rice – have remained relatively high, reporting a drop of only P1 per kilogram to P2 per kilogram four months since the passage of RA 11203. (Madeleine Miraflor)