Traders flock to Pangasinan for cheaper rice

FARMERS in San Manuel town in Pangasinan continue to plant palay even as the erratic weather has disrupted the rice cycle and triggered floods that occasionally destroy their crops and farmlands. WILLIE LOMIBAO/CONTRIBUTOR

ROSALES, Pangasinan—Traders from top rice-producing provinces have been scrambling for newly harvested palay from different towns in Pangasinan since last week, a farmers’ group leader and rice trader here said on Thursday.

But Rosendo So, chair of the party-list group Abono and president of the newly organized Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag), a coalition of 33 farmers’ and irrigators’ associations, said the palay-buying spree of traders from Isabela and Nueva Ecija provinces was not an indication of a rice shortage.

“It is simply because palay is cheaper in Pangasinan than in their provinces, which have been devastated by typhoons,” So told the Inquirer by telephone.

He said in Isabela, a kilogram of palay costs P21, while in Nueva Ecija, the buying price of palay is P19.50 a kg.

“In Pangasinan, because of good harvest, palay is only P18.50 a kg,” he said.

The traders’ buying price is higher than the palay buying price of the National Food Authority, which is pegged at P17 a kg.

Nestor Batalla, rice program coordinator of the provincial government, said for this year, Pangasinan expects to produce some 1,133,373 metric tons of palay from its more than 169,000 hectares of riceland.

“We are now 194-percent self-sufficient, which means we produce more than enough to feed our 2.7 million population,” Batalla said.

Pangasinan is the third rice-producing province, next to Nueva Ecija and the country’s top rice producer, Isabela.

Oftociano Manalo, head of the Ilocos Region Federation of Irrigators’ Association, said traders from other provinces are also buying Pangasinan rice because imported rice is no longer available.

“Before, they were not alarmed because they knew that we were flooded with imported rice. They were the ones who were also buying imported rice. Some of them also bought smuggled rice,” Manalo said.

So also said his group expresses gratitude to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon for their efforts to stop rice smuggling, particularly the attempt to bring in an untaxed cargo of 403 container vans of rice through Davao City.

“We express our thanks to Secretary Alcala and Commissioner Biazon for the good work and coordination that resulted in the apprehension of a total of 200,000 bags of smuggled rice and we also convey our gratitude to our one hero who reported it to us,” said So in a statement. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon