Campaign vs rice hoarding launched

The Department of Agriculture and the National Food Authority jointly launched an antihoarding campaign meant to apprehend traders found manipulating rice supply and prices in the market.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol launched the campaign called “Report a Hoarder” on Saturday.

With the campaign, the DA and NFA expect traders to release their stocks and stabilize prices in the market, Piñol said.

To intensify the campaign, he said citizens who could provide information that would result in the arrest of rice hoarders would receive a reward of P250,000.

The reward money would be provided by private millers and traders whose businesses were affected by the illegal activity.

The antihoarding team had conducted its first night inspection on Friday of at least five warehouses in Marilao, Bulacan.

“Stacks of premium white and glutinous rice were discovered in the warehouses,” Piñol said.

The NFA is expected to return to the area “to validate whether the owners of the rice stocks were really holding on to their stocks,” he added.

Piñol earlier said speculators had been taking advantage of the tightness in the supply of subsidized rice in the market.

This has led to the rise in rice prices by as much as 13 percent from year-ago levels.

In the first quarter, the NFA has apprehended 614 rice traders in line with its own rice monitoring efforts.

Notable violations include the nonrenewal of NFA license, operating without license, noncompliance to the prescribed rice box and display of price tags and signboards.