Group hits NFA move to raise rice prices

MANILA, Philippines — Concerned groups yesterday hit the National Food Authority (NFA) for proposing to increase the prices of rice, saying this is anti-poor and a threat to the country’s food security.            

Rice watch group Bantay Bigas spokesperson Cathy Estavillo said increasing the prices of NFA price from the current P27 and P32 per kilo to P33 and P35 per kilo just because “consumers are not exactly complaining with the current P38 per kilo price of commercial rice” shows the government’s insensitivity and ignorance about the plight of the poor and marginalized. 

“Most Filipinos, especially those who are earning way below the minimum wage, can barely afford a kilo of rice as a result of the record-high inflation rate,” she claimed.

Estavillo said the poor rely on NFA rice and would patiently wait in line for hours just to be able to buy cheaper rice. She added that increasing the prices of NFA rice would deprive the poor of the chance to buy and eat rice at an affordable rate.

She suspects that the shortage of NFA rice in the market these past few weeks might be a way of conditioning the consumers to buy more expensive commercial rice in preparation for a higher priced NFA rice.

The peasant women group Amihan also said the proposal is a step towards NFA privatization.

“The approved version of the Rice Tariffication Bill has limited the functions of the NFA to buffer stocking. Increasing NFA rice price will make the agency profitable and more attractive to the private sector (and put) Filipino consumers and farmers at the losing end. An increase in the price of NFA rice will favor the importers as it will lessen the price gap between NFA and commercial rice,” Amihan chairperson Zenaida Soriano said.

The group, she added, is “demanding for NFA reorientation and strengthening of functions to genuinely serve the interests of Filipino farmers and consumers.”