HOUSE QuintaComm CoChair Joey Sarte Salceda (Albay, 2nd district) warned supermarkets and big retailers of rice that the five-committee House panel on cheaper food prices will be looking into the possible price manipulation and profiteering at the big retailer level.
Salceda released the following statement on the subject:
“I am warning supermarkets and big groceries. We have received reports that imported well milled rice is being labelled as premium rice and sold at P70 per kilo in supermarkets. That means they earn as much as P30 pesos per kilo.
We are inviting them next when the QuintaComm reconvenes.
We disaggregated market returns and as much as 48 percent of excess returns are at the wholesale to retail level.
I also do not believe in the excuse given by both the Bureau of Plant Industry and the Grains Retailers Confederation of the Philippines that the reason for stubborn price increases is consumer preferences for premium rice. We checked the latest reference values, and even the highest quality rice from Vietnam is just P41 per kilo after duties. That doesn’t explain why prices are stubborn at P56. And that does not match actual average import prices of P31 per kilo after duties — that is not premium price.
So, next time I get a reason like that, the committee will be forced to remind people that there are consequences to lying under oath.
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