DA slams ‘abusive, profiteering’ rice traders
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has denounced rice traders allegedly taking advantage of farmers by paying P5 per kilo of wet palay (unhusked rice) in Nueva Ecija.
“That’s way too much already,” Assistant Agriculture Secretary Arnel De Mesa, who is also the DA spokesperson, said on Friday. “It’s really an abuse by traders who are buying [at that price].”
The government buys wet palay at P20 per kilo and President Marcos has repeatedly said that the government will not reduce that purchasing price.
Tailend of harvest
The report was first reported by the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura at the tailend of the ongoing harvest period.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has already ordered the National Food Authority and its regional offices to verify the report and file profiteering charges against identified traders.
“If that’s true, we will pinpoint who the traders are buying at that price and report it because that’s really an abuse,” De Mesa said.
Investigations on earlier reports of low traders’ prices are still ongoing, De Mesa said.
Meanwhile, he said the agency is working on introducing a minimum farmgate price for palay starting the next harvest season, expected between mid-September and October.
De Mesa, however, underscored the importance of House Bill No. 1 or the proposed Rice Industry and Consumer Empowerment Act, which will back the enforcement of the floor price.
The DA is yet to determine the actual floor price for the palay farmgate amount.
