SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – The National Food Authority (NFA) warned erring traders yesterday that it will flood the market with cheaper rice to prevent hoarders from manipulating prices.
Rex Estoperez, NFA director for public affairs, said the agency will flood the market with rice worth P18 a kilo if unscrupulous dealers hoard their supply and make it appear that there is a rice shortage to increase prices.
Some rice traders in Central Luzon claimed that the recent dry spell followed by floods has damaged the rice crops and could result in a shortage.
“I think some traders want to create an artificial shortage while others are reacting to mere speculations of shortage without basis in reality,” Estoperez said.
Estoperez said that aside from the 7.5 million bags of rice currently stored in NFA warehouses nationwide, the government is bidding on Sept. 7 for the importation of 250,000 more metric tons of rice to replenish the country’s grain reserves.
“We might not even need to use the buffer stocks this year as we expect bumper harvests by yearend,” he added.
In Bocaue, Bulacan where most of the big rice mills of Central Luzon are located, millers and traders said that prices of palay have reached more than P17 per kilo.
A rice trader at the Intercity Industrial Estate in Barangay Wakas, Bocaue, a major rice trading center in the country, said that two weeks ago, palay prices ranged from P15.60 to P16 a kilo depending on the variety and quality of the grain.
Rice millers said palay sold at P16 per kilo would translate to a wholesale price of P25 per kilo or P1,246 per sack of commercial rice.
The rice millers complained that after typhoon “Egay” hit the country, palay traders from Isabela and Cagayan immediately raised the price of palay to P17 per kilo, which would translate to P26 per kilo of rice or P1,323 per sack.
“Rice prices normally increase during lean months starting in July, but this year we expect harvests by September,” said Estoperez as he downplayed fears of rice traders that the lean months would extend even up to the first week of December.
“There was just a delay of the planting season from one and a half to two months because of the dry spell, but this could readily be offset by our stocks,” he added.
Estoperez said the NFA would flood the market with rice priced at P18 per kilo if the price of commercial rice increases further.
“But we want to be careful in releasing NFA rice because it might just land in the hands of traders who would merely hoard them to create an artificial shortage,” Estoperez said.
He said consumers would be limited to buying only five kilos of NFA rice as the retail of government rice would be monitored to prevent hoarding.
“The fact is that we even imported less rice this year because our rice harvest in the first quarter was good,” he said.