Cauayan City—Like farmers who are currently suffering from low farmgate prices of unmilled rice or “palay,” rice millers are also victims of imported rice flooding into the country, the president of a regional association said.
Ernesto Subia, who heads the Rice Millers Association of Region 2, said they can’t hoard because they can hardly sell their milled rice, as the market is already flooded with imported rice.
In an interview with local radio station Bombo Radyo Cauayan on Thursday, Subia also chided the Department of Agriculture for blaming them for the continued high price of rice due to hoarding.
“The reported P7-P10 per kilogram buying price of palay is a false news with an intention to discredit the local rice industry,” Subia said.
He said they are buying from P17 to P17.50 per kilogram of dry palay while fresh (sariwa) palay is P13 to P14 per kilogram.
Senator Francis Pangilinan, meanwhile, urged the public to buy local rice to save farmers reeling from extremely low buying prices of palay, now pegged at only P7 per kilo in Central Luzon, almost half the production cost of P12 a kilo.
“One way for us to help our farmers is to support them and buy their rice. Buy local, especially during this harvest time,” Pangilinan said.
“Ask your preferred store for local rice because we know that the market is flooded with imported rice,” he added.
Subia challenged DA officials not to stay in their air-conditioned offices.
“They should go out and conduct surveys so they can find out the correct prevailing buying price of palay especially here in Isabela,” Subia said.
Subia said rice millers who buy palay at unjust prices would be dealt with by having their licenses revoked.
“We have talked with town mayors to cancel the business licenses of erring rice millers and traders in their locality,” Subia warned.
Subia appealed to the general public to report to their respective mayors those traders who buy their palay at extremely low prices.
The DA on Friday denied that the Rice Tariffication Law has caused the price of palay to go down.
“It is not the fault of the law. The [price decline] has been a long time ago even before the Rice Tariffication Law was signed,” DA spokesperson Noel Reyes said.
He blamed traders who would take advantage of the law and would hoard palay.
“The right prices of the volume of imported rice have not yet [been] reflected. Hope they bring out [their supply] that so the prices of rice would go down,” he said.
“It should be sold at once. Sell it so we could have the money. The money, in return, could be used to buy palay,” he added.
He reacted to the claims of rice farmers and consumers that the law was a failure.
“It’s not. Even without the law, those traders are just waiting that the prices would drop. How? They would not buy [palay],” he said.
He said the farmgate prices of palay reached to as high as P22 per kilo in some areas, such as South Cotabato.
Rice farmers in Central Luzon said the price of palay plunged to as low as P7 to P10 per kilo, blaming the Rice Tariffication Law.
The Senate convened on Aug. 29 and Sept. 3 to discuss the effects of the Rice Tariffication Law where farmers groups revealed that the buying prices of palay are now as low as at P7-P8 per kilo in Tarlac, P8 per kilo in Nueva Ecija, and P8-P10 per kilo in Zamboanga Sibugay.
About 200,000 rice farmers have reportedly stopped cultivating their land in fear of incurring a deficit and losing money.
“Farmers should have direct access to the consumers because middlemen are among those who cause their suffering constricting rice prices. That is the aim of our Sagip Saka Act that was enacted in April. Accredited farm enterprises will have direct access to the market,” Pangilinan said.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar on Wednesday announced that the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Sagip Saka Act of 2019 will be released within the week.
The law allows government to buy agricultural produce directly from farm enterprises, exempted from the Procurement Act.
