By Manny Piñol
Cabanatuan City – The drop of palay buying price from a high of P20 per kilo to only P14 in most rice-producing provinces in Luzon is a result of what appears to be a speculative move of rice traders to prepare for the entry of imported rice, rice industry stakeholders said yesterday.
In two face-to-face consultations with farmers and local officials which I conducted yesterday in Echague, Isabela and Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija, I was informed that most rice traders in Northern Luzon have stocks in their warehouses which were bought at a higher price last season.
“Hindi sila makapamili kasi puno pa ang bodega nila at ang stocks binili nila ng mahigit P20 per kilo noong nakaraang anihan,” a local official in Nueva Ecija told me.
(They can’t buy because their warehouses are still full with stocks they bought at a higher price last harvest season.)
“Indirectly, yes, this could be the effects of the threat of rice liberalisation but the move to lower the buying price was a decision made by the traders,” Governor Faustino “Bojie” Dy III said yesterday.
“We can’t blame them. They are businessmen. Naipit yong stocks nila,” said farmer leader Danilo Bolos in Cabanatuan City.
By buying low this season, the traders expect to balance off their losses from the stocks they bought at a higher price last harvest season, the local officials said.
Local officials, however, believe the drop in the buying price is because of speculation and not because of the direct effect of rice liberalisation.
They pointed out that the price of rice sold in the market has barely dropped. Prices now range between P36 and P50 per kilo.
Gov. Dy said the only way to protect farmers from this speculative move is for the National Food Authority (NFA) to intensify its local palay procurement operations.
During the consultations, I assured local officials and farmer leaders that the NFA will focus its procurement operations in provinces where harvests are ongoing.
(Photos by Hector Tabbun and Victor Calderon)
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