00:00 The country's rice merchants are clever and cunning business people who almost always manage to squeeze out every peso they can from the merchandise they sell.
00:09 Arclay's El Pardilla found out an ingenious scheme that borders on the unscrupulous
00:15 and how rice traders make a killing on selling husk rice or palay by hoarding them till the end of the harvest period.
00:24 With the rice harvest season coming to a close, some rice traders are reportedly buying husk rice or palay at a higher price.
00:34 From P23 to P25 a kilo of palay on September and the first couple of weeks of October, it went up to P28 last Sunday, October 15.
00:47 The Samahang Industriya na Agrikultura suspects some traders are intentionally procuring palay at a higher price.
00:56 This would create an artificial price increase in palay and manipulate the value of rice and stocks in storage waiting to be sold in the market.
01:06 The bulk of palay harvested and bought at a lower cost will be sold at the new price with at least three more pesos per kilogram,
01:16 multiply the added cost by thousands of kilos and a hefty profit margin with no extra work or input added.
01:25 If you suddenly buy at a higher price, we can see that there is a price manipulation.
01:35 The traders are right. We bought at P28 so the delivery should be higher. But they bought at P25 for the harvest.
01:52 SINAG will make a recommendation to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to reinsert Executive Order No. 39 or the rice price cap on regular and well-milled rice next month.
02:04 If it's P28, it will be P47 or P48 retail price. The price should not go up.
02:17 We should set a price cap of P45 to go back to P25, P23 to P25 for buying rice.
02:29 Before implementing another price ceiling, the Grain Street Tailors Confederation appealed that they mean the inventory of husk and regular rice and find out how much traders and wholesalers paid for it.
02:43 We don't need to against it. If it's really needed, it's for our consumers. It won't affect the big ones. But we need to know the market process.
02:56 The DA confirmed receiving reports of higher palay buying prices but the agency pointed...
03:02 The maximum is P27 and the minimum is P14. The average is about P22. So it means there are more low prices. So it's just isolated cases of high farm rates. But we will see that in the next couple of weeks.
03:21 Thus, the agency hasn't seen the need to implement a price ceiling for rice.
03:25 The price cap should really be a short term one. I don't think we will resort to that. We'll have to study how. There are probably other measures that we can already do.
03:36 The DA is optimistic prices of imported rice will decline after India lifted its export ban for non-basmati rice.
03:45 India has allowed the export of more than a million metric tons of imported rice, 295,000 metric tons of which are earmarked for the Philippines.
03:56 Hopefully, with the harvesting, with additional supply, especially this is imported rice. If it's going to be lower, then definitely it will influence the retail market.
04:07 To further increase the production of rice and boost the local supply of the country's staple grain, the DA will be working double time to implement a double cropping scheme come the dry season.
04:20 We will control the weather. With proper irrigation, I think we will be able to increase our production and have higher yields during those times.
04:34 The DA and the National Food Authority will implement a contract growing program for farmers.
04:41 Farmers' produce will be constructed and sold to the government during planting season. This way, the NFA could acquire rice buffer stock for the lean months.
04:50 In a rice congress, the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation pledged to provide insurance to farmers hit by natural calamities like El Niño.
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