A farmers group said Sunday that the implementation of a price cap on rice may cause retailers to stop selling since they would not be able to profit.

In an interview with dzBB, Federation of Free Farmers Cooperatives (FFFC) National Manager Raul Montemayor said the price ceiling that the national government set could “backfire” on both farmers and consumers.

“When you say that the maximum price of rice is P45, the traders will compute how much they will buy the unhusked rice so that they can sell it within the P45 price ceiling. Their tendency would be to buy the unhusked rice at a cheaper price from the farmers. The traders do not want to lose profit,” Montemayor said.

Based on the Department of Agriculture (DA) price monitoring, local regular milled rice is sold at P42 to P55 per kilogram while well-milled rice is sold at P47 to 56 per kilogram.

“It might even backfire on the consumer because if the retailers have to sell it at P41 or P45, they will lose profit. Either they will stop selling rice or they will not make their rice WMR (well-milled rice) or RMR (regular milled rice),” he added.

“If they implement that price ceiling on the well-milled rice, there would be a lack of supply in the market and no one will sell it. This would affect both farmers and consumers,” he said.

President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. approved the joint recommendation of the DA and the Department of Trade of Industry (DTI) to impose a price ceiling, according to Executive Order No. 39 which was signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.

The price cap is set to take effect on Tuesday, Malacanang said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS