DA chief: Big traders hoarding rice

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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Saturday, February 24, 2018
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ILOILO City – Unscrupulous big traders are hoarding rice and manipulating prices, according to Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol.

He believed big rice traders were aiming to control rice prices and concocting reports of a rice shortage.

“The truth is, big rice traders are hoarding rice. They then make false news that there is rice shortage to force the National Food Authority (NFA) to import rice. Amo ina ang reality. Tagoon nila ang palay tapos ibaligya nila sang mahal,” said Piñol in a press conference in Dingle, Iloilo where the Department of Agriculture (DA) launched on Thursday its TienDA Para sa mga Bayani project.

Commercial rice should only cost around P36 per kilo, he stressed.

“If the selling price from farmers is P18, the price of rice in the market should be P36 kay dapat ang bili sang bugas ma-double lang ina sa selling price sang mga farmers. I am surprised nga barato diri ang bugas,” added Piñol.

This is the reason, he said, why DA launched TienDA Para sa mga Bayani project – for farmers to bring their produce, especially rice, to the market.

Under this marketing scheme, farmers and fisherfolk will be allowed to sell their produce in military camps.

The Philippines is roughly 96-percent self-sufficient in rice, Piñol said.

But the government is rushing the importation of 250,000 metric tons of rice to replenish NFA’s buffer, which had dwindled.

Farmers produced 19.4 million metric tons of palay in 2017, enough to meet the estimated 11.2 million metric tons in demand, Piñol said.

“By mathematical computation, the production of palay is already above and beyond the national requirement. But we are not declaring rice sufficiency yet,” he told reporters.

If he had his way, according to Piñol, he would not allow traders and middle men to “control” the supply chain.

“We are talking here of food and food is a national security issue,” Piñol said.

He added: “Where does the problem lie? Bakit hindi maramdaman ng publiko ang saganang ani ng Pilipino (Why can’t the public feel the bountiful harvest of Filipinos)? The food supply chain, from the farm to the market, has always been controlled by traders and middle men,” he lamented./PN
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