Rice price uptick seasonal, inventories adequate — Yap

02/10/2009

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap yesterday inspected the Mutya ng Pasig Public Market and confirmed that the price of rice has gone up by as much as P2 per kilo.

Yap said the previous price of rice per kilo of cheap commercial rice ranged between P28 to P30; now it swings between P30 and P32.

Still, a media statement from National Food Authority (NFA) said the commercial rice varieties were selling at the Pasig market for an average of P31 a kilo, a price lower than the forecast selling price based on the agency’s support price of P17 a kilo of palay. At that support price, traders were expected to retail their stocks for about P32 to P34 a kilo, the statement added.

The relatively stable prices at this time is an offshoot, Yap said, of the massive palay procurement operations of the NFA last year, bringing its current inventories at 843,700 metric tons (MT). This volume is 205.6 percent higher than that of the same period in 2008, and is enough supply for 26 days at the current national daily consumption rate of 35,000 MT, said NFA Administrator Jessup Navarro.

Yap said the sudden increase in prices was brought about by the lean season for harvest.

He quickly doused fears that this would be the start of a new rice shortage problem.

The NFA statement said the sudden price increase is normal. “We have enough supply. The P30-P32 per kilo price is within range. We must allow our farmers to earn profits to encourage them to plant more of the staple this year,” Yap said.

He added that the NFA is set to import 500,000 MT of rice this month and in March. The NFA is quick to clarify that the importation is a normal practice while waiting for more supply during the harvest season next month.

They said the importation is part of the targeted 1.5 million MT of rice demand for the whole year of 2009, adding that consumers need not worry about supply. Yap said the import volume was lower than that of the previous year when they imported 2.3 million metric tons of rice.

Yap said he expects the price will normalize during the next harvest season.

“There is a slight increase and adjustment in the prices from October to December when the harvest went down. But when the next harvest season comes in we expect it to normalize,” he said.

The DA chief warned unscrupulous traders that they would face the full force of the law should they engage in unfair trading practices leading to any artificial shortage or unusual price movements.

Yap was accompanied during his market visit by DA Assistant Secretary Salvador Salacup and NFA Deputy Administrator Ludovico Jarina. Jason Faustino

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