CITY OF MALOLOS — Palay farmers and wholesale rice traders in Central Luzon are apprehensive that palay prices this wet cropping season might slide down.

Liza Sacdalan, president of the Central Luzon Organic Rice Producers Association, told ARKIPELAGO NEWS BULACAN that the current National Food Authority (NFA) buying price for clean and dry palay, which is P30 per kilo, is higher by an average of P2.00 to P3.00 per kilo compared to the buying prices of private traders, which range from P27.00 to P28.00 per kilo.

The farmers’ apprehensions were mainly brought about by the reported proposed price of P29.00 per kilogram of rice to be sold in Kadiwa stores in the coming weeks. Sacdalan noted that palay prices might abruptly go down this coming main palay cropping season.

Sacdalan added that the reported importation of Indian rice for the coming lean months during the rainy season, which is said to be sold at a lower price compared to the current market price of the staple grain, would further drive palay prices down.

On the other hand, Tony Santos, a wholesale rice trader in Bulacan, said the imported Indian rice is not of good eating quality and is expected to be sold much cheaper compared to local rice in the market, which has good eating quality.

Based on experience, low-quality but cheaper rice is mostly preferred by low-income earners, wholesale rice traders noted.

This might affect the commercial palay prices for the coming palay wet season harvest, wholesale rice traders in Bulacan speculate.

Rosendo So, president of the Samahang Industriya ng Agricultura (Sinag), said that the P29 per kilo of rice to be sold in Kadiwa stores in the coming weeks will only come from the produce of the irrigation associations of the National Irrigation Administration.

The said rice stocks will be coming from NIA’s Rice Contract Farming Program and will be produced this coming third cropping season only.

The Sinag official said that NIA’s rice program is expected to produce only 100,000 metric tons of palay.

So also said that the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) need not be diverted to the palay procurement fund of the NFA as the grain agency still has an P8-billion untouched procurement fund left in its 2023 budget and another P8 billion for the current year.

The P16-billion budget, So explained, is enough to procure around 566,000 metric tons of palay, which is equivalent to around 355,000 metric tons of rice, sufficient for the country’s 10-day buffer stocks.

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