RICE CRISIS. Larry Paraluman, chief of DA-10 Agribusiness and Marketing Division, shows the rice supply and demand situation in Cagayan de Oro and Northern Mindanao yesterday. Photo by Froilan Gallardo
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PRICES of rice in the hinterland villages run as high as P70 a kilo even as authorities here try to bring these down by setting up shops that sell rice at the government-mandated price of P40 a kilo.

Lawyer Jose Edgardo Uy, chair of Cagayan de Oro’s Regulatory Compliance Board said they have received reports that prices of the basic commodity have spiraled in Barangay Taglimao and other hinterland villages.

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Councilor George Goking, chair of the city’s trade and commerce committee said that rice traders were set to spike rice prices by as much as P25 a kilo but stopped when the city government implemented Executive Order No. 39, this week.

“The traders were planning to spike the price into two incremental increases of P12.50 a kilo. It would have been an economic disaster,” Goking said.

The city government and the Department of Trade and Industry started selling affordable rice at P40 to P43 a kilo last Monday and allowed every buyer to buy ten kilos.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., signed Executive Order No. 39 (EO 39) on August 31, 2023, imposing mandated price ceilings on rice to stop the spiraling of its prices.

The Department of Agriculture-10 said the prices of well-milled rice in Northern Mindanao went up to P65 a kilo before EO 39 was implemented this week.

RICE CRISIS. Larry Paraluman, chief of DA-10 Agribusiness and Marketing Division, shows the rice supply and demand situation in Cagayan de Oro and Northern Mindanao yesterday. Photo by Froilan Gallardo

DA-10 Regional Director Carlota Madriaga said the situation was aggravated by the low supply of rice in Northern Mindanao because August was a “lean month” in rice production and the continued hike of petroleum prices.

Madriaga said the stocks of rice went down to only 13 days and 18 days in September because the farmers have yet to harvest their production.

“We have to feed more than five million people three times a day in Region 10. Our stocks could barely meet the demand,” Madriaga said.

Madriaga said the situation would ease in the coming months of October, November, and December when farmers in Northern Mindanao start their harvest season.

She said the low stocks of the basic commodity were augmented by imported rice from Vietnam, which amounted to 279,000 metric tons that arrived here in several shipments starting in January 2023.

Larry Paraluman, chief of the DA-10 Agribusiness and Marketing Division said a bag of 50 kilos of rice now cost P300 to truck from Bukidnon to Cagayan de Oro.

He said the high cost of petroleum production also affected the prices of rice that are retailed in Cagayan de Oro.

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