FARMERS' COOPERATIVES ALLOWED TO IMPORT 5-MILLION SACKS OF RICE IN 2012, BUT ARE THEY FINANCIALLY CAPABLE AND NOT BEING USED BY TRADERS?

It's in the news!  The National Food Authority (NFA) is reported to be bidding out the importation of some 500,000 tons of rice next year.

According to the report, half of this volume will be imported/bought by traders.  The other half is by farmers' groups.  I take that to mean as farmers' cooperatives, as in the case in the past.


If a ton (metric) of rice consists of 20 sacks, weighing 50 kilograms each (one metric ton equals 1,000 kilograms), half of the importation target means some 5 million bags of rice.  This will be the share to bought by farmers' groups/cooperatives.

Let's assume for argument sake that the profit margin would be up to Php50 per sack.  That would be a whopping P250-million profit.  On the other hand, if the cost of importation would be equivalent to some Php800 per sack, the farmers' share  would entail some Php 4 billion.

The figures are dependent on the actual market prices of rice at the time of importation.  So, these are just rough estimates, for illustration purposes only.

During the past administration, there were published reports of allegations that the farmers' cooperatives were allegedly used as "dummies" by traders.  Moreover, that the said cooperatives were paid a minimal fee for using them as fronts for the importation.  Until now, these remains as such - allegations.

The names of the alleged farmers cooperatives that were used, were published in the said reports.  I checked some of these names in the registry of cooperatives of the Cooperative Development Authority.  

They were registered alright.  Except that almost all of them have very small assets, and even smaller paid-up capital as to have the semblance of financial capability to undertake/participate in the rice importation.

Under the new administration, there appears to be no clear showing that the reportedly unscrupulous use of farmers' cooperatives by traders had been discontinued.

It is thus, incumbent upon the National Food Authority to dispel this continuing suspicion of corruption in rice importations, especially so that this allegedly involve cooperatives.  Or less, it might be misconstrued that we are straying from the "Matuwid na Daan".  So there.  (END).