Cheaper to import rice, but better to raise it here

CLARK FIELD (PLDT/WeRoam) — The question we posed last Sunday — Is it better/cheaper to import rice or to raise it locally? — drew a consensus that while it may be cheaper to import rice, it is better to produce it locally and support Filipino farmers.

It is disappointing that nobody sent us figures on the cost of importing versus raising the same quantity of the same variety of rice. One wonders if the agriculture department and the National Food Authority have comparative figures.

As feedback was heavy and space limited, I chose only four representative emails (below, slightly edited to fit) sent by some of the readers who identified themselves.

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JOSE COJUANGCO JR., Philippine Olympic Committee — There is no other way except to raise our own rice. During my stint as Presidential Adviser on Food Security, statistics showed that less than 4 percent of total world rice production is traded internationally. If for some reason China and India experience rice shortage, there might not be any rice to import.

We can produce all the rice we need and maybe even export some, if we address the problems of rice producers. We have to improve post-harvest facilities like warehousing, dryers and rice mills. Do you know that post-harvest losses reach up to 25 percent in some rice-producing areas?

Our rice farmers, the land reform beneficiaries, have been victims of low farm gate prices. With no place to store their harvest, they are forced to sell immediately upon harvest and that means at a price dictated by buyers. Most often, NFA-subsidized price never reaches these small growers. Our rice farmers can grow rice as well as others, but they need assistance come harvest time.

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O. ESPANOLA, Reno, Nevada — During the 1990s before leaving our country, I tried my hand in rice farming. I tried to sell palay to the NFA in our province, but they asked me to have a passbook and other requirements. They also required that the palay meet certain moisture content.

Too much hassle, that a poor farmer especially the less-educated and those who have urgent need for cash to pay loans and the tuition of their children would find it faster and more convenient to deal with the local rice traders, but of course at much lower than the publicized government support-price.

The local NFA, unlike during the early years of NFA under Marcos, does not buy directly or is simply not interested in buying palay. I suspect they could be buying from the local rice trader at the government support-price and share the profit. It is sad that the price that NFA pays for foreign rice is the same price the local trader is paying local farmers!

Everybody knows why NFA prefers to import rice. We read all about commissions (some from trading and shipping) and tong-pats in buying foreign rice, the lost or sunken (even when there is no storm at sea) barges loaded with rice, and other money-making scams.

Before importing, President P-Noy should require the NFA to publish how many tons of palay they have purchased in each province. Local officials should also start working for the farmers and see to it that the NFA buys all the palay the farmers are selling.

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VIC A. ENDRIGA, Manila — It is cheaper if we import “relief quality” rice, the smelly type that the NFA imports from Vietnam and Thailand. The American rice being brought in through Public Law 480 is slightly better and, according to my moles, this brand ends up in the blackmarket.

The imports would be much cheaper if made tax-free and bagged or repacked into 50-kilo sacks by the government itself, instead of by private contractors who collude with agency officials to make a killing in the overpricing of the sacks alone. If the rice imported in one year is equivalent to 10 million sacks and the overprice P5 per sack, the crooks at the NFA run off with P50 million. In six years (one presidential term), the take is some P300 million.

Insiders talk of one shameless anomaly — the Bigasang Bayan retail system. They report that about 70 percent of the rice imports intended for these outlets in the barangays and public markets land in the warehouses of rice cartel members in Dagupan, Tondo and Paco. This means that the bulk of subsidized rice for the poor is sold in the open market at commercial rates. This includes cheap but good quality imported stock.

Malacañang should order a lifestyle check on top NFA career officials, including the deputy administrators, marketing director, regional directors, warehouse managers and provincial managers. NFA administrator Lito Banayo should be made to make public his wealth and property as of last July 1, so at the end of his tenure we will have a reference to determine if he walked the straight path as directed by the President.

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HILARIO DEL ROSARIO <[email protected]> — With imported rice, all you have to think about are storage and delivery. But with home-grown rice, you need to grow and harvest this. Unfortunately, existing infrastructure is not enough to bring down the costs. If we could do away with inventory, then costs presumably would go down since rice would go straight to the consumers.

But with imported rice, we need to buy in bulk to avail of discounts — and with such huge volumes, inventory costs are a burden. There are other costs related to rice stockpiles such as the weather, interest rates and tariffs.

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