By GENALYN D. KABILING
THE country might have an oversupply of rice after the government has authorized the importation of additional rice, Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said yesterday.
“Today, the National Food Authority has approved 750,000 metric tons additional importation,” Piñol said during a press conference in Malacañang.
“By the end of this year, will have a buffer stock good for 134 days coming into 2019 so there is a danger actually that we may have an oversupply of rice,” he added.
To protect Filipino farmers from the plummeting cost of rice, Piñol said the government has launched a local rice procurement program. He said rice bought from local farmers would form part of the county’s buffer stocks for 2019.
“The NFA last Tuesday launched a buffer stocking program in Mindoro and we will start buying farmers’ produce to protect them from plummeting prices of palay,” he said.
Piñol said he received complaints from Nueva Ecija that palay prices have gone down to P16 from a high of P25. “To protect the farmers, the NFA will be starting the local procurement program. We will focus on the local procurement program now since sufficient na naman ang ating importation,” he said.
Piñol acknowledged that rice prices in the market were “starting” to stabilize. He said in his visit to Iloilo last week, millers were selling rice at P36 per kilo.
Before the end of the month, he said they intend to institute reforms in the local rice marketing sector. He said rice varieties would be clearly identified as Philippine rice and imported rice starting next week.
“Imported rice is being passed off as fancy so binebenta ng mahal,” he added.
Pinol said the government would also do away with the “deception” about the marking of rice in the market, insisting there were no such thing as “Sinandomeng,” “Dinorado,” “Angelica,” and “Yummy” varieties.
Names of rice products will be simplified as regular milled, well-milled, premium rice, and special rice, according to Piñol.
He said regular milled rice would be sold at P38 per kilo, well-milled rice between RP40 to P42 per kilo, and premium rice at P44 per kilo.
Piñol said the rice stakeholders are expected to meet on Oct. 18 to finalize the suggested retail price of the commodity.
