Farmers, traders agree on base price for palay

MANILA, Philippines — The local rice industry has agreed to set a base price for both palay (unhusked rice) and rice to address the continued rise in the price of Filipinos’ main staple.

In a recent stakeholders meeting, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said farmers, millers, and traders agreed to establish a suggested buying price (SBP) for palay and a suggested retail price (SRP) for rice.

“The SBP means that traders will observe a base price and a ceiling price in buying produce so that farmers will be protected and that there will be no uncontrolled ‘pricing war’ in palay procurement which may push prices of rice up,” Piñol said.

“The SRP, on the other hand, will ensure that the traders and retailers do not sell rice at prices which are unreasonable based on the buying price of paddy rice,” he added.

Based on the agreement, regular milled-rice should be sold at P39 per kilogram, well-milled rice at P42 per kilo and long grains head rice or premium rice at P44 per kilo.

Commercial regular milled-rice now sells for P45 per kilo, well-milled rice P48 per kilo and premium rice P52 per kilo.

The SRP will be implemented by the last week of October following request of stakeholders to allow them to dispose  of remaining stocks which were bought at higher prices.

“Rice importers also agreed to bring down the retail price of imported rice in the market and asked the retailers to sell at prices lower than local commercial rice,” Piñol said.

State-run National Food Authority (NFA) will continue to sell government subsidized rice at P27 to P32 per kilo.

For palay, stakeholders also agreed to set a base price for farm fresh paddy rice and for clean and dry palay at P18 and P21 per kilo, respectively.

This as farmgate price of palay declined to P17 per kilo in some areas following the continued arrival of imports coinciding with the main harvest season.