Marcos on P20/kg rice: It's an aspiration hinging on fixing value chain

President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday that his campaign promise of reducing the price of rice to as low as P20 per kilo is an aspiration.

Marcos made the response when pressed on how he would do to drive the rice price down, which he earlier said could be done by having a price cap.

"That [P20 per kilo of rice] is the aspiration. Bubuin natin iyong value chain" (We will fix the value chain), he said in his first news conference as president-elect.

A further search indicates that the value chain is the series of stages involve in producing a product or service that is sold to consumers, with each state adding to the value of the product or service.

"Kausap ko na iyong ibang trader na baka puede natin i-hold ng ilang buwan iyong presyo. I think we will be able to do it. That is the first step," he added.

(I have talked to traders and asked them to freeze prices.)

Marcos, however, said fixing the value chain is the long term solution.

"We really have to fix our value chain, that is the only way," he said.

Likewise, Marcos said that the aging population of farmers must be addressed.

"Our farmers are aged, 56, 57. That is not a good number. That is too high a number," he said.

"How do we change that? We must employ new technologies. It has to be industrial farming," he added. —LBG, GMA News