BOCAUE, Bulacan — Commercial palay prices has now risen at an average of P33.00 to P34.50 per kilo depending on its qualities and varieties.

Traders at the Intercity Industrial Estate and Golden City Business Park, two of the major rice trading centers in Luzon, have confided to ARKIPELAGO NEWS BULACAN that before the recent flooding in Central Luzon, palay prices range from P28.00-P29.00 per kilo.

Last week, after the government announced a proposal to import rice was reported, palay traders suddenly raised their palay prices at an average of P2.00 per kilo or to P30-P31 per kilo.

Again, on July 8, palay traders have raised the grain’s prices at an average of P3.00 per kilo or from P33.00 to P34.00 .

Tony Santos, a rice trader, has confirmed to ARKIPELAGO NEWS BULACAN that palay prices are steadily rising as the rice lean months of July, August and September is picking up.

At the current price of P33.00-P34.00 per kilo, the production costs of a kilo of rice, granting it attains a 60 percent rice milling recovery, will range from P2,530.00 to P2,606.66 per 50-kilo sack or P50.60 to P52.13 per kilo, Santos explained.

He added these prices does not include yet the mark-up prices of the wholesalers plus that of the retailers.

On the other hand, Raul Montemayor, national manager of the Federation of Free Farmers Cooperative, told ARKIPELAGO NEWS BULACAN in a text message that, “If traders are willing to buy palay at such higher prices, it means they expect rice prices to go up even further.”

Montemayor noted that the price trend may reach until mid-September, because the early harvests in September will come during the latter part of the month and may enter the market only in early October.

He pointed out that, “The government should have acted sooner.” Administrator Bioco of the NFA has warned about this problem as early as April this year, but the DA officials seemed to have downplayed it and kept on assuring the public, and maybe even President Marcos, that things were under control.”

He added, “From now until the end of September, we will have a supply gap of about 600,000 to 750,000 tons of rice and that is the deficit we will be facing if the imports do not come in.”

On the other hand, Rosendo So, president of Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG), said in a recent telephone interview that the landed cost of an imported rice from Vietnam is around P2,200 per 50-kilo sack or P44 per kilogram while that from Thailand cost around P2,400 per 50-kilo sack or P48 per kilo.

However, So noted that these are only landed costs and does not cover other costs like warehousing, trucking services and other incidental expenses before being sold by retailers to the consuming public.

Photo: Mon Lazaro