By Ramon Lazaro
BOCAUE, Bulacan — Rice traders in Intercity Industrial Estate and Golden City Business Park, two of the country’s major rice trading centers, have denied allegations by some quarters that they are involved in rice price manipulations.
Rice stakeholders claimed that the Bureau of Internal Revenue has started conducting revenue inspections on rice traders in the two major rice trading centers, but wondered why to conduct the inspections when rice and palay stocks are currently thin and business is in a slump.
A text message forwarded to this writer states ” Dapat daw may address ng buyer ang resibo iniisyu nyo…. P5k per resibo daw penalty.”
Raul Montemayor, national manager of the Federation of Free Farmers explained that the rising cost of rice prices all points down to the basic problem that is still the tight supply of rice.
In such situations, there could be price manipulation by the supposed cartel and some traders who take advantage of the situation to maximize their profits, Montemayor noted.
He added that “even if we flush out all their stocks, we will still end up with tight supplies specially going into September and until we start harvests later in the month up to November.”
Meanwhile, Tony Santos, a rice trader, pointed out to The UnliNews Online that the country is now currently at the peak of the “rice lean months” wherein stocks of Filipino staple grains are thinly spread throughout the country.
He cited that rice prices usually increase during these times as palay traders and rice traders have thin volume stocks of the staple grains and their prices follow the law of supply and demand.
Santos explained that the law of supply and demand states that prices are determined on the volume and supply of a product wherein if the supply of a good or service outstrips the demand for it, prices will fall. If demand exceeds supply, prices will rise.
“Ang tutuong nangyari tumaas sa world market ang presyo ng bigas,” Santos pointed out. (UnliNews Online)
