DA sets reforms in selling rice

By October 15, 2018Business, News

IN his visit to Laoac town, Agriculture Sec. Manny  Piñol announced that reforms will be  implemented in the rice market to prevent the private rice players from exploiting the rice  supply situation.

Sec. Piñol announced in Laoac, that starting this month, he had directed the rice traders to  identify or classify local rice from imported rice.

He said that without identifying the source, imported rice is cheaper but sold as local rice in order to fetch higher price.”Dapat yong imported na bigas ay hindi lalampas sa P40 ang kada kilo,” the secretary said.

Another reform is the limiting of classification of rice to only four with suggested retail prices (SRP).

“The SRP for regular milled rice one is P38, well-milled rice SRP should be P40-P41, whole grain rice (Class SRP should be P42 to P44, and no SRP for special rice but no branding or labeling will be allowed,” Piñol said. “Wala naman talaga yang “angelica” at “sinandomeng” technical names, yan ay pakulo lang ng mga rice players,” he told The PUNCH.

Sec. Piñol was in Pangasinan to turn over P17 million worth of farm machineries provided by the DA to qualified farmers cooperatives and associations in Laoac. These included solar pump, tractors, rice planter, solar dryer and financial grants for the rice mill and loan assistance for the easy access program of DA for qualified farmers.

Mayor Silverio ‘Boying’ Alarcio of Laoac said, the assistance provided by the DA is a big help for the farmers in Laoac, since more than 3,000 hectares of rice field and 65 percent of its population are into farming.

The mayor called on the farmers to prove to the government that they can be trusted fully in maximizing their production with its help.

Meanwhile Sec. Piñol said the buffer stock position in the country as of October 8 is good for 59 days with the arrival of imported stocks of NFA and private traders and the harvest of local farmers.

He said at the end of 2018 up to the entry of 2019, the buffer stock will be good for 134 days, one of the biggest buffer stocks despite the onslught of Typhoon Ompong.  (Nora Dominguez)

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