There will be no abrupt hike in the price on rice regardless of the probable impact of Typhoon Julian as well as the unreleased rice imports, said the Department of Agriculture (DA) on Monday, September 30.
“Hindi tayo nag-e-expect ng sudden or mga biglaang pagtaas ng agricultural commodities lalo na sa palay dahil maganda na iyong supply of both local and imported,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel De Mesa assured.
(We are not expecting a sudden rise in prices on agricultural commodities, especially on rice grains, because the supply of both local and imported rice is plentiful.)
While the DA keeps watch on the Ilocos region, Cagayan Valley, and areas in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) amid the typhoon, the Department hopes the damages incurred from it, on top of the present amount, will not exceed the annual expected losses in the production of rice grains.
The country has so far accumulated 420,000 metric tons (MT) in agricultural damages from the onslaught of the El Niño and other weather disturbances since the beginning of the year. It was anticipated that losses for the year would amount to 500,000 to 600,000 MT.
“May last quarter pa tayo, hopefully hindi na ganun kalaki iyong bagyo. Kahit may La Niña tayo, we're still expecting na mas maganda pa rin iyong harvest,” De Mesa said.
(We still have a last quarter, hopefully the typhoon won’t be as disastrous. Despite the La Niña, we’re still expecting good harvests.)
As for the unreleased shipments of imported rice, De Mesa asserted the amount was negligible and will not affect retail prices at all.
Most of the 888 “overstaying” shipping containers have already been claimed, which the assistant secretary pointed out makes up a mere fraction of the total which had already been taken in.
“That's about 23,000 tons. Kung titingnan natin ito compared doon sa 3,092,000 metric tons na pumasok na, that's less than 1 percent, 0.75 percent ng kabuuan,” he stated.
(That’s about 23,000 tons. If we bring this into perspective, compared to the 3,092,000 metric tons which have already gone in, that’s less than 1 percent, 0.75 percent of the whole)
On September 27, the DA-Bantay Presyo logged the following: the price for local regular-milled rice was between Php 45/kilo to Php 50/kilo; local well-milled rice sold at Php 47/kilo to Php 55/kilo; the price on imported regular-milled rice was put at Php 45/kilo up to Php 48/kilo; and imported well-milled rice could be bought for Php 45/kilo to Php 55/kilo.
