PRICE CEILING. Available rice stocks at the Sibalom Public Market in Sibalom, Antique on Tuesday (Sept. 5, 2023). Bernie Balenti, president of the Carawisan Farmers and Irrigators Association in Barangay Carawisan II, San Remigio, said in an interview that the price cap will protect them against manipulation by rice traders, especially that harvest season is at its peak in Antique. (PNA photo by Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – Farmers in the province of Antique expressed relief on the price cap for regular and well-milled rice mandated by Executive Order 39 signed by President Ferdinand E. Marcos Jr.
Bernie Balenti, president of the Carawisan Farmers and Irrigators Association in Barangay Carawisan II, San Remigio town, with 22 farmer members, said the cap will protect them against price manipulation by rice traders, especially since harvest season is at its peak in Antique.
“The price ceiling will prevent the further dip of the traders' rice buying price, especially this peak season,” said Balenti in an interview on Tuesday.
He added that in previous years, rice traders would offer as low as PHP15.00 per kilogram for the freshly harvested rice, which they would sell twice or even higher when milled.
Balenti said they needed to transport their harvest to neighboring Sibalom town since there are no traders in San Remigio, costing an additional transportation cost of PHP50 per sack.
“Traders also claim that they have stopped buying as part of price manipulation. Farmers in dire need of some cash are forced to further negotiate and accept only whatever will be the offered price for their harvest,” Balente added.
He said with the price ceiling pegged at PHP41 per kilogram for the regular and PHP45 per kilogram for the well-milled rice, traders will no longer take advantage of poor farmers since there is a limit to the income they can generate.
Another farmer, Galileo Magbanua, said while the price ceiling will be advantageous to farmers and consumers, there is a need to monitor rice traders who might take advantage of the situation.
“Traders might sell the old stocks they bought at a much lower price from farmers and claim that because of the price ceiling, they will also be buying the harvest of farmers at a much-reduced price,” Magbanua said.
Meanwhile, Antique Office of the Provincial Agriculture chief Nicolasito Calawag said that 15,000 hectares of the 30,000 hectares with palay standing crops are harvestable this September.
“Traders are still offering higher buying price of PHP22 to PHP24 per kilo to farmers, but we expect the price to still go down with the ongoing harvest,” he said.
He said traders, however, can still make good profit by selling the well-milled rice for as much as PHP45 per kilo, which is within the price ceiling.
In a separate interview, Department of Trade and Industry Antique provincial director Mutya Eusores said while waiting for instructions from the DTI Regional Office on what strategies they will conduct related to the implementation of the EO 39, they expect to have daily monitoring among the rice traders on their adherence.
“We will also be profiling the rice retailers in Antique,” she said. (PNA)
