This is in response to a letter written by Manuel Q. Bondad. (“Rice importation to favor Filipinos’ interest?”, Inquirer, 3/23/12)
Actually the question as to why the rice imports of the National Food Authority (NFA) are costlier than the benchmark price at any given time was already answered in my previous letters also published by the Inquirer last year. You can also get the answer at the Grains Marketing Operations Department of the NFA central office. The reason the NFA’s rice imports are costlier than the benchmark price at any given time is that the benchmark FOB as posted on the Internet is for the 25-percent brokens, while the NFA imports three different classifications: 5-percent brokens, 15-percent brokens and 25-percent brokens, but the contract lumps them together under one price. The NFA should stop importing rice with 5-percent and 15-percent brokens to lower the cost of NFA imported rice. The NFA should also stop the practice of going into a sale through market-determined prices or any means below the retailers’ price to minimize losses.
I hope Bondad or the Inquirer will check with independent sources the veracity of my assertions. Of course, rice importation does not favor the interest of Filipinos, much less our rice farmers.
—JOSE TAGANAHAN,
joe_taganahan@yahoo.com