ONE cannot fault Filipinos for having huge expectations on rice — its supply, prices and quality — for the agriculture secretary is President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself and in this country, when we talk about agriculture, we are talking about rice.
Not only that. During the last presidential campaign, Marcos talked about the possibility of reducing the price of rice to P20 per kilo, from the current P35 to P47. Also note that just recently when Marcos inaugurated a Kadiwa outlet in the province, the Chief Executive was exuberant as he assured the public the government is nearing its target of decreasing rice prices, not just in the limited Kadiwa scale that is currently done.
This week, two big organizations in the rice sector aired concerns about a possible rice crisis similar to the one in 2018. The Bantay Bigas and the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) both see a scenario characterized by a spike in rice prices and a possible shortage of this highly political grain.
‘The long-range solution is to improve the yield of our rice farms, and source out fertilizers and other farm inputs from friendly suppliers and allies, preferably those not involved in the Russia-Ukraine war…’
FFF national manager Raul Montemayor said that while the country’s rice will be enough until June, a deficiency in the staple food could happen during the lean months from July to September 2023. While the same indicators are portents of strong headwinds to come, the FFF is worried that the government and the private sector might encounter greater problems now than in 2018 because then, the National Food Authority (NFA) was still empowered by law to import rice. The Rice Tariffication Law, Republic Act 11203, removed this authority from the NFA.
According to the Department of Agriculture, the retail price of local regular milled rice reached P40 per kilo; local well-milled rice, P46 per kilo; local premium rice, P49 per kilo; and local special rice, P60 per kilo.
Meanwhile, imported regular milled rice was pegged at P44 per kilo; imported well-milled rice, P46 per kilo; imported premium rice, P52 per kilo; and imported special rice, P58 per kilo.
Bantay Bigas noted that the retail price of imported and local rice already increased by P6 per kilo, and this is after the DA announced that the price of rice will increase by an average of P5 per kilo, an estimate that the market followed in reality. The group believes that the department headed by Bongbong Marcos should not be predicting price increases and let the market forces determine it.
All these rice woes can be traced to the country’s policy of importation rather than production, a policy of the economic managers of Presidents Duterte and Marcos that a former agriculture secretary has vigorously been opposing. The FFF noted that when the price of rice abroad increases, it becomes costly to import and so the price of imported rice in the market shoots up, along with the price of locally produced rice.
“The imported rice is increasing. That’s the reason there is a spike in the retail prices as unlike before when cheap imported rice entered the country, traders were also forced to bring down the retail prices of local rice, but since the imported rice is going up, the local price is also increasing,” Montemayor noted.
The long-range solution is to improve the yield of our rice farms, and source out fertilizers and other farm inputs from friendly suppliers and allies, preferably those not involved in the Russia-Ukraine war that has troubled the agricultural supplies chain all over the world. The painful alternative is government subsidy to farmers, which is wishful thinking at this time.
