Piñol: Luzon rice traders to ‘flood’ NFA outlets with low-cost rice

MANILA, Philippines — Big rice traders from Luzon on Thursday promised to President Rodrigo Duterte that they will supply low-cost rice that will be distributed by the National Food Authority amid the reported depletion of subsidized rice.

In a social media post, Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol said the rice traders whom Duterte met in Malacañang agreed to “flood” Metro Manila markets with newly-milled local rice to be sold at P39 per kilo for a profit of P50 per bag.

“The traders said they will deliver 100,000 bags every week until the rice imported by the NFA will arrive in the country,” Piñol said.

NFA Council chairman and Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. on Wednesday said the grains agency’s buffer stock is good for just 0.35 days, well below the 15-day rice reserve that the body is required to maintain at any given time.

But Evasco assured the public that the country will not run out of the staple grain amid the expected arrival of imported 250,000 metric tons of rice just in time for the beginning of lean months.

A total of 501,000 MT of rice was also delivered to the country last month under the Minimum Access Volume allowed for import by a member country, as a commitment to the World Trade Organization, Evasco also said.

Considerate

According to Piñol, the president appealed to the rice traders to be considerate in the pricing of rice.

“I know that you are all businessmen and that you have to make a profit but I am appealing to you not to overprice or hoard rice,” Duterte was quoted as saying by Piñol.

The traders also took the opportunity to share their problems with Duterte, including the alleged extortion activities of Land Transportation Office personnel in a weighing scale station in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya, the agriculture chief said.

“The president immediately acted on their concerns,” Piñol said.