Agriculture chief Francsico Tiu Laurel Jr. remained hopeful on Thursday about the continuous drop in retail prices of rice with the reduced tariff on imported rice.
This came after the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) said retail prices of rice “hardly moved” from a PHP5 per kilogram to a PHP7/kg drop range despite the Executive Order No. 62 which lowered the tariff from 35 to 15 percent.
Tiu Laurel said market prices reflected the stocks previously bought under the higher tariffs.
“Naubos lang iyong stocks ng excess na nabili na mahal ang taripa at sa mahal na presyo itong end of August pa lang. Itong September naman, ang nako–consume natin ngayon is ang bigas or palay na nabili noong (The excess stocks from the expensive tariff and higher price was just consumed by the end of August). Meanwhile, this September, what we are consuming is the rice or palay bought from) January to June ng napakamahal ng (that’s so expensive) local traders or local buyers,” he said in an interview.
Local farmers benefited from the PHP29/kg to PHP30/kg buying price of palay from January to June, which then translated to higher retail prices in the market, he said.
“Ang equivalent na presyo niyan (Its price equivalent is) PHP56. Hindi pa nauubos iyan. So ang feeling ko naman, baka pababa na iyong stocks niyan (It’s not yet gone. So, I feel that the stocks may be dropping) by October 15 of this year,” he said.
“And hopefully, tuloy-tuloy ng pababa iyan (it will continue to drop) by January. Siguro makuha natin (We may reach) at least less PHP5 (decline) by January.”
The DA earlier monitored rice retail price drop in Metro Manila, going as low as PHP42/kg or lower than PHP50/kg level from the previous months.
Extra profits
FFF national manager Raul Montemayor, meanwhile, claimed rice traders have “pocketed” around PHP5 billion since the implementation of EO 62.
“The fact that retail prices hardly moved means that importers, wholesalers, and retailers pocketed most of the PHP5 billion in savings. They, and not the consumers, have been the real beneficiaries of the tariff cuts,” he said in a statement.
He said rice importers saved PHP6.70/kg from over 800,000 tons of imported rice that arrived from July to mid-September.
Although Tiu Laurel admitted that the PHP5/kg to PHP7/kg drop range projected by economic managers is not yet widely felt in local markets, he refuted the allegation.
“Well everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. But for me, hindi naman siguro (I don’t think so),” he said.
As of Wednesday, the price of imported regular-milled rice in Metro Manila ranges from PHP42/kg to PHP48/kg and PHP45/kg to PHP55/kg for imported well-milled rice, according to DA-Bantay Presyo.
The local regular-milled rice ranges from PHP45/kg to PHP50/kg, while the local well-milled rice ranges from PHP47/kg to PHP55/kg. (PNA)
