The Department of Agriculture-Northern Mindanao (DA-10) has exposed an alleged modus of some retailers to sell rice at a high price.

DA-10 said some retailers allegedly switch the rice classification tags of regular, milled, well-milled, premium, and special rice to sell them at a higher price.

The price of rice varies according to the classification.

DA-10 said the prices of rice in the market should have decreased as imported rice have already arrived.

“Ginadulaan nila ang regular, gihimo nilang premium. Ang premium, gihimo nila og special para lang gyud makakuha og taas nga presyo,” DA-10 Supervising Agriculturist, Dr. Ferdinand Caraballe, said.

Because of this, DA-10 is mulling of removing the rice classification tags.

However, an official of the Rice Retailers Association in Cagayan de Oro said removing the rice classification tags would only cause confusion among consumers.

The group admitted that there are rice retailers who have put the classification tags mistakenly.

“Kanang mga retailer nga naay mga tao, pag-display ana, kini ilang mga tao mag-tag mana magkarambol-rambol… kung dili ka check-up ang tag-iya, dili siya makabalo nga iyang tagging wala na nagtukma,” Rice Retailers Association President, Engr. Franklin Dagcuta, said.

DA-10 is proposing to bring back color coding tags as what the National Food Authority (NFA) did in the past.

“Once naa nami IRR, amo gyud na ipa-impose through the market administrator nga tanggalon gyud ang tagging with regards to regular, well milled, premium ug special,” Caraballe said.