Special report: The price of rice

CEBU, Philippines - Ordinary laborers, particularly those who receive wages below the prescribed minimum wage, can no longer afford to buy quality rice for their families after the prices of commercial rice products went up to an average of P49 per kilo.

In fact many people have stopped eating quality rice and already shifted to cheaper varieties to save a few pesos that could be spent for other basic needs.

Shift to more affordable rice varieties

Cherry Uy, 46, a widow residing at a province-owned lot in Barangay Apas said, “Sa una Ganador man g’yud nga bugas ang paliton sa akong anak apan dihang misaka na pag-ayo ang presyo, mibalhin na lang mi sa mas barato nga bugas.”

Ganador is a long-grained variety of rice produced in Nueva Ecija. There is also a variety called Ivory, which is from Isabela. Other rice varieties include Panda, Sinandomeng, Washington and several others. Good quality rice, like the ones called Fancy rice, and Ganador, are silky grains that double in size when cooked.

Several rice plantations in Luzon have been damaged by floods caused by recent typhoons. This is the reason why Cebu and other parts of the country experienced scarcity of quality rice.

The country is the 8th largest rice producer in the world, accounting for 2.8 percent of global rice production. But, in 2010, the Philippines was also the world’s largest rice importer.

NFA records show that in 2008, the government imported 2,297,271 metric tons of Vietnam rice. Importation, however, slowly decreased in the succeeding year, and last year the figure of rice importation went down to only 205,700 metric tons.

On its official website, the National Food Authority claims that the agency was able to intensify the procurement of palay (raw rice) from local farmers at P17 per kilo. From January to August of 2013, the NFA had already purchased 281,767 of palay from local farmers, which is much higher compared to the 68,313 metric tons that NFA purchased last year.

NFA-7 public information officer Lucy Rosales said the NFA milled rice is sold for only P27 per kilo at accredited retailers that is why those who cannot afford to buy the already expensive commercial rice varieties can still purchase their products, including the NFA well-milled rice, at only P32 per kilo.

The NFA in the region still has about 1.1 million sacks of rice in their warehouses in Cebu City, Bantayan and Camotes Islands, and at their warehouse situated at the back of the NFA-7 regional office along Archbishop Reyes Avenue.

“Daghan pa kaayo kita og buffer stocks nga bugas nga makaabot pa og mga 50 ka adlaw. Dili angay mahadlok ang mga tawo nga mahutdan ta’g bugas,” assured Rosales.

But while NFA rice is much cheaper than commercial rice, the public, even those low-income families, do not buy it.

“Baho-an man gud ang akong anak sa NFA nga bugas. Bisan og kislan pa nako’g kaupat naa gihapon ang baho,” said 28-year-old Rhea Magdadaro-Borja, whose husband is a motorcycle-for-hire or habal-habal driver operating in Barangay Apas.

Borja said that because her husband only earns an average of P200 daily, she just buys one kilo of commercial rice at P39 per kilo for their daily consumption.

Rice retailer Caridad Bontilao of Barangay Busay admitted that some of her customers who used to buy Ganador had already shifted to other varieties that are much cheaper.

“Kon may kwarta sila, mopalit og Ganador, pero kon apiki sa budget, palit ra sila sa mga bugas nga bobarato ang presyo,” said Bontilao. She sells Ganador at P46 per kilo, Lion Ivory at P42; Sinandomeng at P38 to P40 depending on the quality, and corn grits at P32 per kilo. Ganador rice, meanwhile, is sold at P45 to P46 per kilo in public markets and other retailers. Department stores sell it at P49 to P51 per kilo, prompting Rosales to advise the public to buy at the markets to save money.

Uy, however, said the public should be wary about buying “quality rice” in public markets because there are some unscrupulous rice traders who mix their quality rice with the cheaper ones to earn more. “Mao lagi, barato ang uban sa merkado pero sinagolan man gud, dili na g’yud pure nga variety sa bugas ang imong mapalit,” she said.

Rosales of NFA -7 said it is very difficult to prove that there are rice traders who mix quality rice with other kinds of rice varieties to generate more revenues. “Mao na’y gitawag og adulterated rice apan lisud man gud kay wala man g’yuy mobuhat ana nga magpakita kay illegal man na,” Rosales said, admitting that the NFA has no capability of determining whether rice is adulterated.

Construction worker Estanislao “Lalaw” Caldoza of Labangon shared that his family seldom eat Ganador rice nowadays because his P200 daily wage is just not enough. “Ari lang g’yud ta sa baratohon nga bugas,” he said.

Even those who earn more and could afford the higher quality varieties of rice have shifted to more affordable varieties. Uy, whose son-in-law works at a five-star hotel and is getting a high salary, has stopped buying Ganador.

Low supply?

The Grains Retailers Confederation of the Philippines (Grecon) denied speculations that some rice traders are hoarding their stocks to justify the increase of prices.

Former Grecon president and now vice president Teresa Alegado, who is also mayor of Consolacion, Cebu, earlier explained that the high retail price of commercial rice products in the market is caused by the increase in the prices of rice from their suppliers.

An NFA insider confirmed that the scarcity of stocks of commercial rice triggered the increase of rice prices. But the source said the recent increase in the prices of rice should not be a cause of worry during this time of the year because the months of June up to August are considered lean months, which means there is no harvest and there is a low supply of rice.

“Basin karong October mobalik na ang naandan nga presyo sa atong bugas,” the source said.

Strict importation policies

There are also speculations that the supposed rice shortage is a result of the government’s policy that regulates the importation of rice from Vietnam and other countries.

The law provides that all rice importations must be covered by permits from the National Food Authority.

In line with the government’s policy of removing the rice importation monopoly of NFA, all private grains businessmen, either individual or entities, are already allowed to undertake rice importation, which shall be part of the country’s food security requirement.

But the law strictly provides that private rice importers shall be subjected to payment of duties and taxes, including other fees that may be required by the bank and the Bureau of Customs, or the NFA shall be charging them a service fee for the rice importation if the private rice traders will use the NFA tax expenditure subsidy.

NFA’s Rosales said the agency is planning to display NFA rice in department stores to give the public a chance to try their product, which is much cheaper and is also iron-fortified. Department store owners, however, have not accepted the NFA’s offer.

The actual NFA rice consumption in the whole Central Visayas from January to present is already at 58,495 bags and 38,037 were sold in various places in Cebu City and province.

The NFA official said that aside from the over one million sacks of NFA rice that are stored in their warehouses, there are also thousands of sacks of commercial rice stored at the private warehouse of rice traders, proving that there is no shortage of rice in Cebu.

Go easy on rice

consumption

But despite having enough stocks of rice, Rosales said the public should not waste food.

The government has declared this year as the National Year of Rice, an advocacy that aims to promote responsible rice consumption for better health and less rice wastage, and to promote effective rice farming.

In an age when restaurants offer “unlimited” rice servings, the NFA is reminding the public that eating a lot of rice could give them illness.

The agency says that each and every one has a part to play in the National Year of Rice. Estimates show that the country’s 92,337,852 population waste about two tablespoons of rice everyday and the cost of the wasted rice reaches about P2.6 billion a year.

There are now moves to institutionalize the serving of half-cups of rice in the food service industry to prevent wastage, as well as promote health. — /QSB (FREEMAN)