Outgoing Agriculture Secretary William Dar believes that the campaign promise of President-elect Bongbong Marcos to bring down the price of rice per kilo to P20 is impossible for now.
Dar said that even before the war in Ukraine and Russia, production cost of palay was at P11.50 per kilo.
But with the increasing prices of fuel, palay production cost has soared to P14.80 per kilo.
“Now, ang farmgate price natin naman, ‘yung bibilhin mo ng palay, at 14 percent moisture content, ay P19 ang present na farmgate price,” Dar said.
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“So titingnan natin yun kung kaya ba ng P20 ang kilo ng bigas. With this data, it’s not yet possible,” he added.
The agriculture chief insists there’s a need to lower the cost of palay production first.
“Gusto kong idagdag na yung aspiration ng ating president-elect ay magandang pangitain yan na lahat ng magawa natin, i-planong maigi how we can achieve that level of price for rice na P20,” Dar said.
“So one way to really reduce the price of rice is to reduce your cost of production,” he added.
