Trust
BY LITO BANAYO
Walk the talk
‘What is there to investigate? Yap is simply posturing.’
HERE we go again, with Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap directing the National Food Authority to investigate alleged overpricing of rice in Metro Manila and other urban centers.
What is there to investigate? Prices of commercial rice have indeed increased by P2 a kilo. There is nothing the government can do about it as there is no price control on commercial rice. Yap is simply posturing.
But there is much that Yap can do to ensure supply of cheap subsidized rice. And this is the area where Yap should focus his attention, not on issuing empty threats against rice traders who are only responding to supply/demand forces.
The National Food Authority, which Yap chairs, sells rice at P18.50 a kilo for indigents and P25 for everybody else. If retailers are selling NFA rice above these prices, then their licenses should be revoked. But for sellers of commercial rice which retails above P25 a kilo, the price is pretty much what the market can bear.
Yap, however, tries to create the impression that there is something wrong with the recent P2 kilo increase in the price of commercial rice.
He assured consumers that there is sufficient supply of rice across the country and the government has enough stocks to stabilize the market.
"There is no cause for alarm because the government has sufficient stocks to intervene in the market to cushion any increase in the prices of commercial stocks," Yap said.
At present, he said, NFA has a safe inventory level of 996,000 metric tons, which is sufficient for 28 days at a daily consumption rate of 36,300 tons.
The country’s total rice inventory is estimated to last for 77 days with commercial rice stocks placed at 460,000 tons and household stocks at 1.350 million tons.
If that indeed is the supply situation, Yap should do what he announced he would do: flood the market with rice.
Price presumably would dive. Those alleged hoarders, speculators and profiteers would be punished where it hurts most: their pocketbooks.
All Yap is mouthing is fluff and puffery until we see prices easing.