Palay matches ‘darak’ cost as price drops

Rice farmers, like this one in Barangay Niñoy in Aguilar town, Pangasinan province, spend long hours on the farm despite drops in grain prices. —WILLIE LOMIBAO

LINGAYEN, PANGASINAN—Price of palay (unhusked rice) has dropped from P15 a kilogram (kg) to P12 a kg since September, due to the flood of imported rice in the market, an official of a farmers’ group said on Monday.

According to the National Food Authority (NFA), some 250,000 metric tons (MT) of rice from Vietnam and Thailand had arrived in the country as of Oct. 5.

Oftociano Manalo, president of the Pangasinan Federation of Irrigators’ Associations, said more imported rice will arrive this month and in November.

Farmers were looking forward to a good harvest this year because the province was spared from natural calamities that could have destroyed their crop. Pangasinan is the country’s third biggest rice producer, next to Nueva Ecija and Isabela provinces.

With a production cost of P45,000 for every hectare or P10.50 to P11 a kg, farmers would not be able to recoup their expenses at current selling prices, Manalo said.

He said the price of palay now matches that of “darak” (rice bran), the swine food.

NFA imported a buffer stock for the lean months, “but the lean months are the months of June, July and August,” Manalo said. “Why are they arriving only now that we have begun to harvest?” he asked.