Rice grains may be the next commodity to see its prices go up due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, this is according to a recent remark from the National Food Authority (NFA).
"Maaaring tataas po, kasi ang global prices ngayon ng bigas ay affected dahil sa war ng Russia at Ukraine," NFA administrator Judy Dansal told DZRH on Thursday.
(It could go up, because the global prices of rice are affected because of the war between Russia and Ukraine.)
According to Dansal, the ongoing conflict between both countries are affecting the exportation of wheat, causing a shift in demand for wheat.
"Itong Ukraine at saka Russia malaki ang kanilang ineexport sa global market na wheat," she explained. "So because of that, magshi-shift siguro ng rice yung mga nagre-require o gumagamit ng wheat."
(Russia and Ukraine are exporting huge amounts of wheat to the global market. So because of that, countries requiring or using wheat would shift to rice.)
"Dahil diyan may effect ngayon sa global prices ng rice dahil sa law of supply and demand, mas lumalaki ang demand sa rice dahil sa insufficiency of wheat," Dansal added.
(Because of that, it will have an effect on global prices because of the law of supply and demand. The demand for rice will increase because of the insufficiency of wheat.)
The NFA administrator said the country cannot rely on the self-production of rice, which could potentially cushion the price increase, because the country is still not self-sufficient in producing rice grains.
"Malaki ang ating consumption requirement as against ‘yung production," she said.
(We have a huge consumption requirement against production.)
"Hindi naman natin tinatawag na shortage, shortfall lang kasi hindi pa natin kaya."
(We cannot really call it a shortage, just a shortfall because we still cannot do it.)
On how much the prices would increase, Dansal said they have yet to find out about this.
