The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Rose de la Cruz
Even as the Department of Agriculture is still studying setting a floor price for palay (unmilled rice), a farm group — Bantay Bigas — is proposing that it set the minimum farmgate price of P21 per kilogram, to ensure a better return for the farmers.
Bantay Bigas spokesperson Cathy Estavillo said the floor price would ensure that planters will earn at a fair price amid claims that some traders are purchasing palay at unreasonably low prices.
“A floor price should be set at no less than P21 per kilo,” Estavillo told mediamen.
“The cost to produce a kilo of palay ranges from P17 to P18 per kilo according to farmers and based on [our] research, yet it’s being bought at P13 or even P10 per kilo,” she added.
She urged the National Food Authority (NFA) to purchase more palay from farmers.
“The NFA needs to buy the rice from our farmers at a high price because we can’t expect anything if we rely on traders and millers to buy our farmers’ rice,” she said.
NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said the grains agency would send its staff to investigate the cases of alleged underpricing of palay.
“Whenever we can, we go to the farmer. We are also rushing the warehouse repairs so we can accommodate them,” Lacson said.
Under the NFA’s price range scheme, it buys clean and dry palay at P23 to P30 per kilo, while the price of fresh and wet palay ranges from P17 to P23 per kilo.
Estavillo also sought the amendment—if not the revocation—of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) that would allow the NFA to intervene in the market.
“Our call to repeal the RTL]remains,” she said. “But if it is amended, it should restore the NFA’s mandate to subsidize the price of rice and sell it not just in Kadiwa centers but also in markets.”
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. earlier hinted at implementing a floor price for palay to protect local farmers from being underpaid. He noted that the agency is looking for legal remedies that will allow it to implement the measure.
“The DA is seriously studying this, and we’re looking for legal avenues that would help us implement this measure if possible,” Laurel said, adding that restoring NFA’s regulatory functions would help it enforce the measure.
Laurel said aside from floor price, the registry of traders is a must. “The NFA’s regulatory powers are really crucial,” Laurel said.
Laurel said he hopes to release the floor prices for palay come the next harvest amid reports that farmgate prices have reached the bottom of P11 per kilogram. The floor prices would be based on farmers’ expenses on inputs (fertilizers and seeds) per hectare.
This is the first time that a floor price would be set up after the dismal performance of the administration senatorial slate in the just-concluded midterm elections 2025, which obviously highlighted the people’s disgust over the poor performance of the administration in three years.
To illustrate, he said, if a farmer pays P30,000 to P35,000 per hectare on palay then this must be inputted in the floor price to ensure that earns modestly from his livelihood.
Laurel said the RTL “severely weakened” the NFA’s ability to keep rice prices and supply stable as it was reduced to a “buffer-stocking agency” that could only buy rice for emergency use.
“I want the NFA not just to do buffer stocking but directly sell to the market through its accredited retail outlets like before,” Laurel said adding that previously retailers and traders had to be registered with NFA before they can sell rice. That way DA had control over the market and identify which ones are underpaying farmers and overselling rice to consumers.”
Laurel said he wants the tariff on imported rice to stay at 15%. “I will not increase for now dahil nga tapos na ‘yung harvest season dito…Kung magtataas man tayo ng tariffs, siguro kung kailan may harvest season nung nagbebenta,” Laurel said.