‘Smuggled rice sold in the market’

MALOLOS CITY, Philippines   â€“ For Bulacan farmers, part of the rice sold in the market today is smuggled, and they blamed the situation on a decrease in local production and limited importation.

The farmers said the price of palay increased to P25 per kilo last week.

The National Food Authority (NFA) though said it could not determine if rice sold in the market is smuggled or not, apparently bolstering the suspicion that smuggled rice is passed on as commercial rice.

Simeon Sioson of the Lambakin Agricultural Marketing Cooperative based in San Miguel town said it is possible that what Filipinos consume these days is smuggled rice.

Sioson said commercial rice traders have at least 97 share of the rice market.

“That is one of the reasons why the price of rice is shooting up all the time,” he said.

Sioson said if the claim of Customs officials that at least 50,000 metric tons of smuggled rice enters the country every week were true, this meant that “hot rice” accounts for at least four million bags of rice sold. 

He said the country’s rice inventory in the past two years was affected by calamities, while NFA rice importations were reduced, and that the discrepancy is partly supplied by smuggled rice.

NFA spokesman Rex Estoperez said they have no way of identifying smuggled rice once it is released to the market.

In an interview with Radyo Bulacan last week, Estoperez estimated the NFA rice market share in Metro Manila at only 20 to 30 percent, while imported rice accounts for 30 to 40 percent.

He said they could not determine yet the market share of local production, adding that Metro Manila is dependent on rice milled at the Intercity Industrial Park in Bocaue. 

Bocaue rice millers said rice milled at the industrial park are sold in south Luzon, while rice sold in Metro Manila are mostly imported and traded on Dagupan Street in Tondo, Manila.

Local rice millers said last week’s spike in the price of palay was the highest in recent years, adding it was partly caused by low supply as production in northern Luzon suffered from typhoons last year.

As of Tuesday, the price of palay in Bocaue had dropped to P23 per kilo and rice millers expect the decrease to continue until mid-March.

Meanwhile, Ilocos Norte was named one of the top 10 rice-producing provinces in the country.

Provincial agriculturist Norma Lagmay said President Aquino would hand the award, including a P4-million incentive, to provincial officials in a ceremony on March 14.   – With Teddy Molina