A rice price watchdog is urging the government to set up buying stations in barangays nationwide and distribute more trucks to farmers to help reduce consumer prices.

Bantay Bigas spokesperson Cathy Estavillo said the additional trucks and buying stations in barangays nationwide will cut costs on middlemen as the government buys locally produced rice from farmers at a higher price, subsidizes delivery costs, and sells the rice at a cheaper price.

"The buying stations were supposed to be facilitated by the National Food Authority or NFA to bring palay closer to milling facilities," she told the Daily Tribune in Filipino through a Viber message on Friday.

Buffer stocks

However, the NFA has been limited to buying local rice to serve as buffer stocks only as a response to calamities and emergency situations, following the signing of the Rice Tariffication Law in 2019 by former president Rodrigo Duterte.

This has enabled the private sector to import rice as much as they want, but in exchange for certain tariff rates.

The NFA is also allowed to import rice with the permission of other governments in the importing countries.

"The private sector continues to dictate lower prices of local palay and sell them higher to consumers. They are able to stir price pressures by flooding the market with rice imports," Estavillo said.

She suggested that the government buys 20 percent of local rice to provide decent income to Filipino farmers and achieve the ideal consumer price of P20 per kilo.

"Rice prices have risen in 14 years. Without government intervention, rice prices will remain high. Based on our monitoring, prices reached P53 per kilo and even higher in some public markets," Estavillo said.

President and former agriculture chief Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in September imposed a P41 per kilo price cap for regular milled rice and P45 for well-milled rice, after prices climbed up to P60 per kilo.

Trucks and Kadiwa stores

Aside from buying stations, Estavillo said the government must provide farmers more trucks for transport of rice to consumers and put up Kadiwa stores near public markets.

"Not all places in the country have Kadiwa stores. They are present only in select areas. We are suggesting to have them placed near public markets where most people go to buy food," she said.

These statements came after DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. ordered rice importers to use permits only until next month and have the rice brought to the country within 30 days.

Data from the DA said rice imports could reach over 2 million tons, ensuring enough rice supply until March next year.

"The quick importation is not good as the local harvesting season is still going on to provide rice supply," Estavillo said.

However, Laurel is firm that importation is inevitable amid the threats of drought caused by El Niño to the agriculture sector.