THE Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) expressed fears the inclusion of local rice in the list of products covered by price freeze will dampen palay prices.
In urging government to rethink its latest memorandum circular expanding the coverage of the price freeze policy to cover local rice, FFF national manager Raul Montemayor said palay price should be allowed to seek its own level.
Montemayor said government can instead buy palay and subsidize or give the rice to the needy while making sure rice prices keep in step with palay prices.
“Farmers are harvesting now, palay prices are inching up to the relief of millions of rice farmers who lost an average of 25 percent of their income in the last two seasons due to excessive imports following the enactment of the Rice Tariffication Law in 2019,” Montemayor said.
“Limiting rice prices to pre-COVID-19 levels means keeping palay prices at breakeven or losing levels. Farmers already lost more than P80 billion last year, it is grossly unfair to ask them to keep on sacrificing when they have already suffered greatly and are also victims of the virus,” he added.
Montemayor said government must give farmers a reason to continue planting rice which should come in a form of decent prices for their efforts
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed as of third week of March, farmgate price of palay rose 1 percent from the previous week at P16.41 per kg. against P16.25 per kg.
However, farmgate prices on a yearly basis is a decline of 12.9 percent as prices in the third week of March 2019 were at P18.83 per kg.
PSA data also showed that the average wholesale price of well-milled rice (WMR)went up by 0.3 percent to P37.14 per kg from the previous week’s P37.02 per kg but 8.1 percent lower compared to last year’s prices of P40.43 per kg.
The average retail price of WMR increased by 0.3 percent to P41.26 per kg from P41.13 per kg. but 6.5 percent lower from 2019’s P44.13 per kg.
The average wholesale price of regular milled rice (RMR) picked up by 0.7 percent to P33.01 per kg from last week’s P32.78 per kg but 10.2 percent lower from last year’s 36.74 per kg.
The average retail price of RMR increased by 0.5 percent to P36.36 per kg from previous week’s 36.19 per kg but still 8.7 percent cheaper from 2019’s P39.82 per kg.
Local special rice has a suggested retail price of P53 per kg; premium local rice, P45; local well-milled rice, P40; local RMR, P33 and; RMR NFA, P27.
