P20/kilo rice unattainable during Marcos term – farmers

MANILA, Philippines — The P20 per kilo rice is no longer achievable during the term of President Marcos, a group of farmers said yesterday.

Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura executive director Jayson Cainglet made the statement as the quinta committee of the House of Representatives starts today its inquiry into agricultural smuggling.

House ways and means committee chairman Albay Rep. Joey Salceda has said that the hearing’s main objective is to bring down the retail price of rice to P20 per kilo.

“We wonder why there are officials who still insist on this as it only backfires on the President,” Cainglet said.

Reducing the price of rice to P20 per kilo was a key campaign promise of Marcos during the 2022 presidential race.

“Even the President said that the P20 per kilo rice is an aspiration and not a working agenda,” Cainglet pointed out.

Salceda has said that the P20 per kilo rice would be among the “four tangible goals” that the five-panel special committee would try to achieve as lawmakers look into reports of rice smuggling, among others.

The three other objectives Salceda mentioned were bringing local livestock and poultry prices to “regionally competitive levels,” reducing agricultural production losses from 30 to 15 percent and increasing the annual gross value-added for merchants or the producers’ net income.

“The cost of producing palay alone ranges between P16 and P17 (per kilo). This does not include the milling and the various layers before rice reaches the market. Why insist on the P20 per kilo of rice?” Cainglet said.

He said it could only be achieved if the cost of producing palay is only P8 per kilo.

“It is difficult to achieve even in the next few years unless the government provides subsidies, but even the revenues of the government are not enough,” he noted.

Cainglet said what the government can do is to boost local production.

“The focus should not be the P20 (per kilo of rice). It will not be achieved in the entire term of the President,” he said.

According to Cainglet, the farmgate price of fresh palay has dropped to P14 to P16 per kilo.

“The farmers are suffering huge losses, exacerbated by the flooding of imported rice. The production is also low as the average per hectare is only four tons compared to other countries’ five to six tons,” he said.

Cainglet said that the government would incur at least P16 billion in revenue losses before the year ends because of the implementation of Executive Order No. 62, which reduced tariff on imported rice to 15 percent from 35 percent.

He said the P9-billion funding of the National Food Authority can only procure less than one percent of the total palay production.