Half-rice offered at McDonald amid fears of food crisis

MANILA, Philippines – “Half-rice” may soon become standard fare in fast food restaurants.

McDonald’s, one of the leading chains of quick-service restaurants in the country, announced plans to serve half-rice to its customers in response to government’s call to help conserve the country’s supply of the staple.

Margot Torres, vice president for marketing of McDonald’s, said half-rice meals would be officially made available in all McDonald’s outlets beginning April 17.

Torres, however, said McDonald’s will remain committed to offering high quality food to customers despite the half-rice meal.

“McDonald’s immediately acted upon (Agriculture) Secretary (Arthur) Yap’s appeal and mobilized a plan to offer half rice in its restaurants, still guided by the brand’s commitment to food quality for its customers,” Torres said.

She said the quick-service restaurant has acquired half-rice scoopers and developed in-store promotion materials for the campaign.

“The effort will not only help the country in rice conservation,” Torres said.

Since early March, rice prices have steadily increased triggered by fears of global shortage in supply. 

The government will be spending at least P3.35 billion for emergency measures to mitigate the effects of the global tightening of rice and other food commodities.

The National Food Authority (NFA) also embarked on a consumer campaign for rice conservation.

The NFA said an estimated 25,000 bags of rice are wasted in Filipino households nationwide every day.

The NFA is embarking on the campaign to make the public realize how much of the rice they cook daily actually go to waste and for them to undertake measures to prevent such wastage.

A non-government organization, on the other hand, raised the alarm on measures to allow rice importation by private sector.

Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) warned that giving rice traders more than enough authority to import rice could lead to more abuse of their discretion and the opportunity to dictate prices of rice.

RI said trader importers tend to control the supply from the local sources.

The group earlier projected the price of rice could reach to at least P40 a kilo during the lean months of July to September, as they also see rice supply shortage to worsen during the period.

“The private sector that will benefit from liberalized rice importation is the same unscrupulous trader suspected of repacking NFA rice that are mixed with the commercial rice and sold at a higher price,” said Jessica Reyes-Cantos of R1.

“Giving them ample liberty to import rice will lead to more abuse of their discretion and the opportunity to dictate the prices of rice as they also control the supply from domestic sources,” she said.

R1, a coalition of farmers and civil society organizations, also criticized the World Bank “for pushing the country further to the pits because of its straitjacket neo-liberal approach of liberalized trade.”

“That will not work particularly now when even the top exporters of rice like Vietnam and Thailand refuse to release their precious supply into the world market,” they said.

Cantos said Yap’s prescriptions of liberalized rice importation are outright ineffective since these will not bring down domestic prices given the skyrocketing prices in the world market.

According to Cantos, the current price at $747 per metric ton of rice in the international market will end up at P32 per kilo in the local market with the tariff reduced to zero percent, and giving the rice trader only 10 percent margin for packing and hauling expenses.

Citing R1’s computation, Cantos said the effect of the current world market price and the corresponding tariff reduction showed that the 40 percent tariff will result to P46 per kilo of imported rice in the local market.

She said a 20 percent tariff will result in P39 per kilo; and 10 percent tariff will lead to P36 per kilo of rice in the local market.

At this point, R1 pressed the government to instead allow genuine farmers groups to import rice, as the best ideal measure to address the problem.

This way, the group pointed out, the farmers will be able to recoup their losses from the shortfall in their production and be able to benefit and not be harmed by the competing rice supply from importation.