Group warns of impending rice shortage

MANILA, Philippines – The country has only 18 days’ supply of rice from the National Food Authority (NFA) and even less stocks for commercial rice, according to a party-list lawmaker.

ABAKADA party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz said Thursday there is an imminent shortage of the staple in the coming weeks in the aftermath of successive storms.

He said he has received numerous reports that the remaining rice stocks of wholesalers, distributors and even dealers are already drying up despite claims by the NFA that the country is nearly rice sufficient.

“I think that we should really look into this. From what I was told by NFA insiders, we only have 18 days in supply stock and worst, we only have around five to six days of good stock rice because the rest are still in palay form,” De la Cruz said in a statement.

He described the situation as very serious because the harvest season is still in October, around two months away.

“That is almost an eternity to rice eating people like us,” he said.

NFA rice is cheaper but of lesser quality compared to the commercial grains. The poor comprise the bulk of those buying NFA rice.

News reports earlier this week indicated that rice prices, particularly that of commercial grade grains, have continued to increase by several pesos per kilo.

He said though the NFA imported rice from Vietnam, which is reportedly around 205,700 metric tons of rice for its recent buffer stock, this may not be enough to cover the country’s food staple requirement during the lean months.

It is estimated that for the entire Philippines with a population of more than 90 million, as much as 33,000 MT are consumed per day.

De la Cruz said in Metro Manila, one of the hardest-hit areas during Tropical Storm Maring and monsoon rains, the rice allocation coming from the 205,700 MT rice importation was only 43,500 MT whereas the average consumption is pegged at 15,000 MT per day. Thus, the stockpile is only equivalent to less than three days of supply for Metro Manila consumers.

“This early we are already hearing reports of long queues among wholesalers of commercial rice from their usual supply sources and it is just a matter of time before our people would really feel that we are in a state of crisis,” the lawmaker said.

De la Cruz said he is worried the situation might escalate beyond control as he noted that while in the past the NFA’s rice passbook allocation for rice retailers was 100 sacks of rice per week, now it has been reduced to 20 sacks per week.

“And yet this was before the onslaught of Maring and habagat,” he said.

Because of the limited supply of the cheaper and more affordable NFA rice, consumers are being forced to buy the more expensive commercial rice, which is also in an increasingly vulnerable supply situation, he said.

Without enough supply of commercial rice, De la Cruz said it would be nearly impossible for the NFA to fill the supply gap with only five to six days of good stock rice.

“What I’m really worried about is if we come to a situation when even the NFA can no longer provide us with the supply and our commercial rice have run out because our harvest season is still in October. Where will our people go? What will they eat? What if we are again devastated by another typhoon?” he said.

Palay procurement intensified

The NFA, for its part, yesterday said it is intensifying palay procurement as early as now after rice farmers in several areas in Visayas and Mindanao harvest early.

The NFA said that farmers in Western and Eastern Visayas, Western and Southern Mindanao and Cagayan have started harvesting mid-August, a month ahead of the traditional harvest period.

“This early harvest is expected to boost the country’s rice stocks,” said NFA administrator Orlan Calayag.

As of Aug. 13, the national rice stock inventory was placed at 604,762 metric tons.

Harvest season in Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Ilocos, and Cagayan Valley is expected to commence between September to November.

Calayag has instructed the agency’s regional managers to increase palay procurement to “capture a sizeable portion” of the harvest for buffer stocking.

Data from the Bureau of Agricultural statistics (BAS) showed that there was a slight uptrend in the wholesale and retail prices of milled and unmilled rice the week of the onslaught of Typhoon Labuyo and the monsoon rains that followed.

Farmgate price of palay from Aug. 14 to 20 was placed at P18.09 per kilogram, up by 0.39 percent from the previous week and up by 5.42 percent year-on-year.

Wholesale price of well-milled rice rose by 1.55 percent to P36.09 per kilogram from the previous week and by 8.57 percent year-on-year.

Average retail price was placed at P37.78 per kilogram, up by 0.94 percent from the previous week and by 5.68 percent year-on-year.

Based on farmers planting intentions, palay production in the second semester of the year is seen at 10.46 million metric tons, higher by 3.1 percent from last year’s output 10.14 million MT.

The harvest area for the second half of the year may expand by 2.3 percent to 2.72 million hectares from 2.65 million hectares in the same period last year.

Rice anomaly

Meanwhile, a group led by activist-lawyer Argee Guevarra yesterday questioned rice imports by the NFA from Vietnam since April.

Guevarra, of Sanlakas party-list, alleged that the NFA inserted a purchase of 187,000 metric tons of imported rice without necessary approval from the Department of Finance through the Fiscal Incentive Review Board (FIRB).

He asked Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to look into the importation, which he said was overpriced by P457 million for a single transaction.

Guevarra presented documents to reporters in Manila to prove his claims.

The NFA purchased the 187,000 metric tons of rice at a cost of $459 or P19,762.95 per metric ton but while government-to-government contracts are supposed to be more cost-effective, the prevailing market price in Vietnam when the deal was made was only $360 or P15,480 per metric ton.

Guevarra said a check of the Oryza Global Rice price for the period showed how the NFA had overpriced its acquisition cost by at least $10,439,275 or P457 million for a single transaction.

He said he was able to speak with industry experts who revealed that the landed cost of Vietnamese rice – inclusive of handling and delivery – should only be at $409 or P17,587 or an overprice of P2,100 per MT.

“Secretary Alcala should be more circumspect now in his rice importation where the price disparity is already indicative of the potential hand of rice price profiteers. In the wake of the Napoles pork scam which hurt the people’s pocket, the distinct possibility that the price of rice imports are being manipulated to fatten the avarice of the few may trigger an upheaval of the many considering that rice is a daily staple and is a gut economic issue especially for the poor,” Guevarra said.

He expressed fears that the planned importation of another 700,000 metric tons of rice by November under a government-to government agreement will be animated by the same price piracy involving closet profiteers from the agriculture department and the NFA.

He said he plans to bring this matter to the Office of the Ombudsman or the newly created Inter-Agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council for further investigation. –-Paolo Romero (The Philippine Star)
with Edu Punay, Czeriza Valencia