AGRICULTURE Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. on Wednesday urged lawmakers to return the power of the National Food Authority (NFA) to directly intervene in the market to help stabilize rice prices.
At the House of Representatives’ “Murang Pagkain” super committee hearing, Tiu Laurel said restoring NFA’s privilege to sell rice directly to the public at low prices would protect consumers more effectively.
The privilege was removed following the approval of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) in 2019. Previously, the NFA had the authority to issue licenses to rice traders and account for rice supply in warehouses. The RTL limited the NFA’s role to sourcing palay (unmilled rice) from local farmers for buffer stocks.
Department of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. PHOTO FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
The Department of Agriculture wants amendments to the RTL, including restoring NFA’s powers, but these requests have yet to be approved.
“I believe if we want to control the situation, it is better to restore all the powers of the NFA. It just has to be managed by honest people,” Tiu Laurel said, proposing it as a long-term solution to the problem of rice stocks and prices.
The reason traders have been successful in manipulating rice prices was the clipping of the NFA’s power to regulate the prices. The NFA, he pointed out, has a buffer stock of almost 6 million bags of rice that could be sold to the public to lower the price of rice.
Iloilo 1st District Rep. Janette Garin asked the National Bureau of Investigation to probe the rice supply chain and check if there is market price manipulation, like what happened to onion prices a few years ago.
Tiu Laurel said NFA’s average palay buying price this year is P27.45 per kilo (kg), which translates to roughly a P49 retail price for local well-milled rice.
On the other hand, imported rice sells for P42 kg.
Some 13 million metric tons (MT), or 78 percent of the country’s rice supply, comes from local production. The country imports an annual total of 4.5 to 4.7 million MT of rice, including a buffer stock of 10 percent.
Nonetheless, Tiu Laurel lauded President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for reducing the rice tariff to 15 percent from 35 percent in July 2024, which kept rice prices manageable, even as rice imports this year increased compared to previous years.
Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said: “Because rice demand is virtually inelastic — meaning, consumption doesn’t change despite price fluctuations — the absence of a regulator has led to welfare losses of P136 billion.”
Be the first to comment