middlemen 05-04-10

	NORDIS WEEKLY April 10, 2005
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Middlemen, not farmers taste bittersweet P12 palay
BINALONAN, Pangasinan (Apr. 7) — It is the middlemen and traders, not the farmers, who will profit from the P12 palay price increase this dry cropping season, an official of the National Food Authority (NFA) based here revealed Thursday. The increase came amid calls to pump the play price to P15 by militant groups and the production tends to drop at the height of dry season. NFA Manager Renato Sanedrin said he favors the farmers’ demand to increase the palay price taking into consideration the ill-effects of soaring prices in crude and pesticides used in production. However, NFA could only procure palay products at P10.50 support price. Sanedrin admitted they could not compete with traders and middlemen during times when price offered in the market goes up. He said it is during these times that farmers opt to sell their products to traders and buying stations but they remain ‘empty handed’ as the middlemen impose a ceiling price at P10.50 to P11. Local production reaches an average of 12 million metric tons annually but NFA is able to buy less than 5% of the output. Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) Pangasinan chapter argues the government could afford to buy the P15 increase since the government spending on rice importation accounts for billions of pesos. In 2002, the government loss on rice importation is P3 billion, KMP data show. The peasant group maintains that the government could have put up a subsidy to enable it to buy palay directly from the farmers to eliminate middlemen and traders in the palay trade. Last March, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered NFA to keep the price of rice at P16 for ordinary milled rice and P18 for special well-milled rice. The Philippines bought 400,000 tons of rice for April-May, this year. 350,000 tons of which are coming from Vietnam. Also, the government procured 250,000 tons of broken rice variety from Vietnam suppliers at $284.47 or P15,600 per ton. Sanedrin, however, feared that a P15 palay increase would result to NFA breakdown and could spell even unaffordable rice to consumers. “We sympathize with the farmers, but up to how much?” Sanedrin asked. # Jhong dela Cruz for NORDIS
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	NORDIS WEEKLY April 10, 2005
Home \| To bottom	Previous \| Next
Middlemen, not farmers taste bittersweet P12 palay
BINALONAN, Pangasinan (Apr. 7) — It is the middlemen and traders, not the farmers, who will profit from the P12 palay price increase this dry cropping season, an official of the National Food Authority (NFA) based here revealed Thursday. The increase came amid calls to pump the play price to P15 by militant groups and the production tends to drop at the height of dry season. NFA Manager Renato Sanedrin said he favors the farmers’ demand to increase the palay price taking into consideration the ill-effects of soaring prices in crude and pesticides used in production. However, NFA could only procure palay products at P10.50 support price. Sanedrin admitted they could not compete with traders and middlemen during times when price offered in the market goes up. He said it is during these times that farmers opt to sell their products to traders and buying stations but they remain ‘empty handed’ as the middlemen impose a ceiling price at P10.50 to P11. Local production reaches an average of 12 million metric tons annually but NFA is able to buy less than 5% of the output. Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) Pangasinan chapter argues the government could afford to buy the P15 increase since the government spending on rice importation accounts for billions of pesos. In 2002, the government loss on rice importation is P3 billion, KMP data show. The peasant group maintains that the government could have put up a subsidy to enable it to buy palay directly from the farmers to eliminate middlemen and traders in the palay trade. Last March, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered NFA to keep the price of rice at P16 for ordinary milled rice and P18 for special well-milled rice. The Philippines bought 400,000 tons of rice for April-May, this year. 350,000 tons of which are coming from Vietnam. Also, the government procured 250,000 tons of broken rice variety from Vietnam suppliers at $284.47 or P15,600 per ton. Sanedrin, however, feared that a P15 palay increase would result to NFA breakdown and could spell even unaffordable rice to consumers. “We sympathize with the farmers, but up to how much?” Sanedrin asked. # Jhong dela Cruz for NORDIS
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