DA chief says no rice cartel, blames past administrations

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. yesterday blamed past administrations for current woes in the agriculture sector, saying no major investment was made in the past 40 years.

- By BELLA CARIASO

"The main fault of previous administrations was they failed to invest in irrigation and post-harvest for rice and corn with scale to solve the problem," he said.

Tiu Laurel stressed that it was only during the administration of President Marcos when the government started to invest in the farm sector.

At the same time, Tiu Laurel said there is no rice cartel amid the high retail price of the staple, despite the implementation of Executive Order No. 62, which lowered the tariff on imported grains to 15 percent from the previous 35 percent.

"The industry is quite fragmented to have a cartel, only profiteering of some importers and retailers," Tiu Laurel noted.

"Cartel means many (traders) are conniving to set prices. But even in the market level, we monitored different prices in a market so there was no standard pricing. In the intercity, each importer sells at different prices," he added.