Commercial rice price on the rise

CEBU, Philippines - The price of commercial rice has increased between P1 to 2 per kilo for the last two weeks based on interviews with some rice dealers.

This developed as the National Food Authority-7 and the Department of Agriculture-7 has still to conduct price monitoring today.

“Nimahal gyud ang presyo sa bugas mga duha na ka semana ang nilabay,” said rice dealer Emmanuel Paglinawan in an interview with The FREEMAN.

Paglinawan said that prices of Ganador for instance increased by P2 from P41 to P43 per kilo.

Lelia Albarracin, another rice dealer, said that there has been a scarcity in the supply for commercial rice since last month. She said she had no choice but to increase her selling price of commercial rice per kilo.

“Sukad nga gidakop sa Customs ang imported rice, nagnihit na gyud. Kasagaran nga baligya karon kay mga local gikan. Unya pila ra baya ‘nang supply sa local, gamay ra na,” said another rice dealer who requested not to be named.

Last month, the Bureau of Customs-Port of Cebu apprehended P1.2 billion worth of smuggled rice from Vietnam.

Around 26,000 bags out of apprehended 500,000 bags of smuggled rice were already sold in a public auction for P40 million last Monday.

BOC is now fast tracking the inventory of the remaining smuggled rice so that this will be up for public bidding.

The National Food Authority-7, on the other hand, assured the public of sufficient stock for Central Visayas.

“NFA-7 assured the public of sufficient stocks and we are positioning our stocks for any eventuality,” said NFA-7 information officer Lucy Rosales said. —/BRP (FREEMAN)