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BOCAUE, Bulacan—Palay prices have reached a new high at
P17 per kilo after the damage to crops by typhoon Egay,
which pulled in the southwest monsoon, deluging Luzon.
Rice
millers in Intercity Industrial Estate in this town, a
major rice trading center of the country, told
BusinessMirror that prior to the entry of typhoon Egay
into the country, palay prices were pegged at P15.60 to
P16.00 a kilo depending on the variety and quality of
the grain.
Palay
at P16 a kilo translates to a wholesale price of
commercial rice at around P1,246 per sack, or roughly
P25 per kilo.
At
P17 a kilo, wholesale price for commercial rice rises to
P1,323 per sack, or around P26 a kilo.
Palay
prices during harvest this last dry season started at
P12.50 to P13.20 a kilo depending on its variety and
quality; this translates into wholesale prices of
commercial rice of P980 to P1,030 per sack or P19.60 and
P20.60 a kilo, respectively.
There
are also observations from traders and farmers the palay
lean months may extend until the last week of November
or early part of December because of the dry spell prior
to the three typhoons—Chedeng, Dodong and Egay, that in
turn inundated palay farms.
It
has become noticeable that many rice traders in
Intercity have temporarily stopped operations because
they fear that a sudden infusion of much- cheaper NFA
rice in the local market will lead to their heavy losses
or may even lead to their bankruptcy.
These
fears arose after officials of the National Food
Authority assured the public there is enough rice to
tide the country over until December, which will retail
at P18 a kilo.
Marciano Alvarez, provincial manager of the NFA in
Bulacan, has ordered price and stock inventories of all
warehouses of rice traders in Bulacan to better assess
the supply situation in the province. |
