PILI, Camarines Sur -- With at least P1-margin in the buying price against the government’s subsidized palay buying, the traders here have cornered all the rice production all over the province, according to the manager of the National Food Authority (NFA) here.

        Edmundo Enriquez, NFA manager of Camarines Sur, revealed the traders were buying between P12.30 to P12.50 a kilo of palay while the government subsidized buying price is only P11 per kilo, and with incentives the government adds 25 centavos to 50 centavos per kilo.

        “This harvest season, 100 percent of Camarines Sur’s palay production were sold to traders, and no farmer has availed of the subsidized palay buying of the national government,” Enriquez said, adding that the farmers prefer fast cash.

        Without stock of locally produced rice, the NFA here relies on rice importation to achieve rice sufficiency level and reach 12.5 percent supply participation of the total rice requirement of the province.

        Enriquez revealed that the rice stock inventory of NFA Camarines Sur as of October 23 was at 5,000 bags that he said would be increased with the arrival of a vessel loaded with 130,000 bags of Thai rice in Tabaco Port on October 24, wherein the province has been allocated 35,000 bags.

        He said three more vessels are coming to Tabaco Port to bring in imported rice to the region and that Camarines Sur is expected to receive 130,000 more until November.

        Enriquez said prices of commercial rice from the locally produced rice the traders sell in the local market must at least twice the buying price, so that, he said the prices must be from P24.60 to P25 per kilo.

        The NFA manager said that Camarines Sur, which has been touted the only Bicol province with rice surplus, is actually 15 percent deficient in rice production as against its supply requirement.

        Enriquez showed data that in the recent five-year period ending 2006, the yearly average rice production of Camarines Sur was at 4.1 million bags of palay while the rice sufficiency requirement of the province based on population was at 4.8 million bags per year.

        He added that Camarines Sur is actually 15 percent deficient in local rice production based on the average yearly requirement.