Millers warn of more rice price hikes

A worker unloads commercial rice in front of a warehouse in Dagupan Street, Tutuban in Manila on Sunday. Commercial rice prices are expected to go up by P1 to P2 per kilo during the lean months beginning this June according to National Food Authority (NFA) said. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

SAN JOSE CITY, Nueva Ecija—Rice millers in Nueva Ecija province, the country’s top rice producer, said the public should be ready for more increases in the prices of rice, especially during the lean months.

“We bought the dried palay at P25 a kilogram and paid P20 to P21 for the fresh harvest. At that purchase price, we cannot be expected to sell it at lower than P38 a kilo of the milled rice,” said Edgardo Alfonso, president of the 26-member San Jose City Rice Millers Association.

He said from wholesalers, to whom rice millers deliver their supply, the shipment still has to go to retailers.

He said retailers would increase the prices so they could earn.

“We agree that there is a thin supply of rice in the market due to the unattained target [in the government’s] rice self-sufficiency program and that’s why the government imported rice. But we don’t see that the price of commercial rice can be pushed down as that would mean losses for those engaged in the grains business,” he said. Reports said the current market price of rice was P2 higher than the price three months ago.

Alfonso said the government can  control only the prices of rice that the National Food Authority imported. But he said the millers’ selling price for their wholesale clients may still go up.

This “is just the beginning of what may be an upward trend in the pricing of commercial rice. We are buying palay from traders for at least at P26 a kilo. This means that the premium rice (whole grains) will be sold to wholesalers at P45 a kilo while those with broken grains will be sold at P40 a kilo,” he said. He said he did not believe reports that a rice cartel was dictating the prices of rice in the market.

He said millers’ association supplies wholesalers in Metro Manila, Cebu province and provinces in Southern Tagalog with at least 30,000 bags of milled rice daily. They price their commodity without the influence of any group or individual, he said.

Alfonso said there appeared to be a problem in the strategy used by the Department of Agriculture and the NFA in handling the rice supply problem in the country.

“In the first place, why did the DA allow the rice millers and the traders to offer very high farm gate prices of palay at an unprecedented level this year? It should have made some interventions. It was okay that farmers earned much, but how about the consumers now? They are crying because of the high price of milled rice,” he said.

According to him, the government should consult with the leaders of the rice industry to draw up correct strategies in handling the situation.

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