DA eyes legal action vs unscrupulous rice dealers
The Department of Agriculture (DA) will go after traders who are taking advantage of farmers by buying their palay (unmilled rice) at significantly lower prices after the government started implementing a subsidized rice program.
At a Malacañang press briefing on Monday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the DA is exploring legal options to hold these traders accountable despite the fact that no cases can be filed against them for now.
“We have identified 32 locations in Luzon and the DA is already investigating this because we have to identify them. Basically, an investigation is ongoing,” he said.
One of the policies that the DA is considering is setting a floor price for buying palay, a practice adopted in other countries, including India.
“We are studying the best practices in different countries that we can hopefully [apply to our country]. But of course, for things like these, we are still checking whether a law is needed or an administrative order will be enough,” he added.
Tiu Laurel said the DA is prepared to deploy its marketing or procurement group to buy palay in areas where it is being sold to traders at low prices.
Farm-gate price
As a rule of thumb, the retail price of rice is double the farm-gate price, which refers to the price received by farmers for selling their produce directly from their farm. The farm-gate price is largely influenced by traders.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the farm-gate price of palay stood at P20.29 per kilogram as of April, a decrease of 26.4 percent from P27.55 per kg during the same month a year ago.
The April price is also 2.4 percent lower than the farm-gate price of P20.79 per kg in March.
At the retail level, local regular and well-milled rice were sold from P33 to P50 per kg in Metro Manila markets as of Saturday, as opposed to P46-P55 per kg the year before, based on the DA’s price monitoring.
The DA is also scheduling a meeting with newly elected local officials to expand the scope of the “Benteng Bigas Meron Na (P20 rice, it’s here)” program that sells rice at P20 a kilo.
“We have started … to set appointments with, say, the incoming Cebu governor and other government officials who are included in the first phase [of the program],” Tiu Laurel said.
Under the program, the Food Terminal Inc. and the participating local government unit will equally split the P13 per kg subsidy, allowing them to sell rice at much lower prices.
Currently, beneficiaries are allowed to purchase up to 30 kg of rice per month.
