The Rice Industry.pdf

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

extracted text: 26 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1929 REAL ESTATE By P. D. Carman San Juan Heights Addition This is one of the best September totals since 1920. Following the excellent figures of July and August, it would seem that a temporary depression in other lines does not affect Real Estate, at least not immediately. The fol lowing are the Septem ber totals 1921 to 1929 inclusive: 1921, 1,022,093; 1922, 1,040,814; 1923, 1,153,444; 1924, 1,652,377; 1925, 1,164,819; 1926, 1,167,921; 1927, 722,047; 1928, 899,079; 1929, 1,179,905. Sales City of Manila Aug. 1929 Sept. 1929 Sta. Cruz..................... P 342,518 P 145,463 Binondo....................... 84,618 282,403 San Nicolas................. 56,000 17,399 Tondo.......................... 293,658 98,547 Sampaloc..................... 61,580 152,489 San Miguel................. 1,000 35,000 Quiapo......................... 43,000 Intramuros.................. 35,000 48,500 Ermita......................... 68,068 54,398 Malate......................... 101,347 98,909 Paco............................. 159,822 20,534 Sta. Ana...................... 33,436 19,762 Pandacan.................. . 2,220 150,501 Sta. Mesa.................... 19,010 1,000 Singalong..................... 12,000 Pl,258,277 Pl,179,905 THE RICE INDUSTRY By Percy A. Hill of Muñoz, Nueva Erija. Director, Rice Producers' Association As predicted in the last review of the rice indus try, prices have since stiffened for both palay and rice, the average price advancebeingabout 40 centavos per sack. This was due, as pointed out, to dwindling sup ply and the stiffening of the overseas export mar ket, especially Tonquin, f urther aggravated by the breakdown of railroad shipping facilities caused by the typhoon in the early part of September, and which are still suspended at the date of writing (Sept. 25th). Curiously, the consuming public reacted to the warning of the market’s advance tendencies, by reviving the bogey of profiteering, hoarding, or ‘“what have you”. The sugar-men, alleging lack of forthcoming supply, desire a reduction in the protective tariff, the only thing that allows us to produce rice at all. As a matter of fact, the outlook for the coming crop is as good as it was this time last year, in spite of baguios, cut-worms, and press scareheads. In addition to the sugar men’s suggested remedy of the state of affairs, we have an over-taxed Labor Bureau trying to give information to a mere one-half of one per cent of all laborers. The “boomerang” law regarding rice warehousing, another’s attempt to meet the situation, will penalize the producer by restric tion of credit, and a forced sale of his product, since the deposit function is not supposed to work after Jan. 1st, 1930, and the buyers them selves will not wish to carry a burden when their profits are small. Thus storage of supply which is a godsend to the producer is penalized by a law that sounds good but which in effect is not to the advantage of the buyers and millers to comply with; they will buy outright, and let others take up the burden of warehousing. All these things are the regular slings of mis fortune that occur annually about this time, tp the detriment of the producer. Let us look first at the attempt to “fix prices”. All persons in an administrative position with a modicum of sense know that this has never succeeded in any in dustry which ignores supply, demand and price. To date, all these noisy efforts of the Don Qui xotes who strive for the milennium have never reduced by one cent the price in open market of this commodity, nor have all their lucubrations increased supply by a single kilo. It is just an annual brainstorm, like that of last year at this time, which we have to suffer. As for the reduc tion of the protective tariff: First, it is a small tax paid by those whose standard of living is infinitely higher than the humble grower of this necessary commodity. Secondly, this revenue means much to a government whose most vital question is that of seeking more and equitable taxation for our ill-balanced finances. Thirdly, the danger lies in the fact that, once the abroga tion of the greater part of this protective tariff (which can be accomplished by Executive Order) is effected, given the present Chinese demand and price, we could easily export our rice to that market in preference to keeping it here; for in the last analysis the rice producers, some four and half millions, must, live in spite of the one half of one per cent of labor, and irrespective of the sugar-men. All of the above problems are deserving of careful study. As regards the benefit of irrigation, this lies not so much in increasing the crop as that of insuring the crop against the weather. Com bined irrigation systems have perhaps increased our yield by 8%, which is, after all, something tangible, but there is no necessity of any further expansion since in a good year we are self-suf ficing. A permanent expansion of our rice yield would put us in a much more unfortunate posi tion than the sugar men, a product with no ade quate market. The price of rice in a good year falls below the cost production. At present the gain to the industry over cost is slightly more than our legal interest. Any radical move that will affect the industry adversely will conse quently drive the rice producer to other crops, which would mean sugar, and then we have another impasse. The upward trend of the overseas rice market is due to Chinese and Japanese demand. We must import to stabilize supply, and of course no law we can make will affect world prices or over seas supply, all of which is obvious. At present the coming crop promises as well as the crop of last year did at this time. Approximate esti mates can be made within the next 75 days. THE YOKOHAMA SPECIE BANK --------- ------------------ 1.. ■ —i ■■ ■■ = LTD. ■ — (ESTABLISHED 1880) HEAD OFFICE: YOKOHAMA, JAPAN Yen Capital (Paid Up) - - - - 100,000,000.00 Reserve Fund .... 108,500,000.00 Undivided Profits - 10,420,920.97 MANILA BRANCH 600 DASMARINAS, MANILA K. YABUKI Manager PHONE 2-37-59—MANAGER PHONE ] 2-37-58—Export, Current Account, Cashier | 2-37-55—Import, Accountant REVIEW OF THE HEMP MARKET By L. L. Spellman Macleod and Company This report covers the Manila hemp market for the month of Sep tember with statistics up to and including September 30th, 1929. U. S. Grades:—The first of the month found the selling market in New York quiet with buyers showing little or no interest. Shippers were offering on the basis of: E, 12-1/4 cents; F, 11-1/4 cents; G, 8-3/8 cents; I, 11 cents; JI, 10-1/4 cents; SI, 10-7/8 cents; S2, 10-1/4 cents; S3, 8-1/2 cents. Hand to mouth business continued and by the middle of the month sellers were becoming overanxious and prices had declined to: E, 11-7/8 cents; F, 10-7/8 cents; G, 8-1/8 cents; I, 10-5/8 cents; JI, 9-7/8 cents; SI, 10-3/4 cents; S2, 9-7/8 cents; S3, 8-1/2 cents. The more the shippers endeavored to sell, the less interested the buyers appeared to be and the weaker prices became. By the end of the month an unusually large quantity of hemp was being offered and the nominal asking prices were: E, 11-1/2 cents; F, 10-5/8 cents; G, 8 cents; I, 10-1/4 cents; JI, 9-1/2 cents; SI, 10-3/8 cents; S2, 9-7/8 cents; S3, 8-1/4 cents. This showed a decline of from 1/4 cent to 3/4 cent per lb. on the various grades during the month but these prices do not reflect the true situation and undoubtedly hemp could be bought from 1/4 cent to 1/2 cent under these prices. Davao hemp which usually carries a premium and finds a ready market was being offered in large quan tities with no buyers and the asking prices were as low as the prices on hemp from other prov inces. In Manila the market for U. S. grades was extremely quiet the first of the month with rather indifferent buyers on the basis of E, P26; F, P24.75; G, P17.25; I, F24; JI, P21.25; SI, F24; S2, P22.50; S3, P17.75. There was very little change by the middle of the month so far as prices were concerned but the under tone was decidedlv easy. Sales were made on the basis of E, P26; F, F24.50; G, F17.50; I, P24; JI, P21.25; SI, F24; S2, P22.25; S3, P17.75. Throughout the balance of the month prices declined steadily and the buying- was IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL
Date: 1929
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