THE National Food Authority (NFA) will now be selling rice at a higher price of P37 per kilogram to government agencies and private entities, particularly those involved in disaster relief operations, to avert incurring additional losses.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the NFA Council approved the increase in the price of rice sold to both local and national government agencies and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) by P10 per kilogram from the present P27 per kilogram.
Some of the agencies include the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Office of Civil Defense, which source from the NFA the rice they distribute in relief operations.
The increase in selling price
would allow the NFA to break even or even earn a peso per kilogram, since the
food agency is now producing rice at a higher cost after its buying price for
local palay was increased in October 2018, Piñol said.
Piñol added that Filipino
consumers in 40 identified poor areas would still have access to
P27-per-kilogram rice as the NFA will continue to sell the subsidized staple in
their areas in line with President Duterte’s directive.
“We will keep our market participation rate at 10 percent in surgical areas. We will not operate in areas where there is a surplus of rice stocks,” he said in an interview with reporters last week.
“We will focus in net importing provinces and areas, such as Metro Manila, and island provinces. We will continue to release NFA rice to these markets at P27 per kilogram even after we have consumed our imported rice stocks because the President ordered that the poor should still have access to affordable staple,” he added.
The NFA will partner with local government units in establishing “Bigasan ng Bayan” or rice outlets in the 40 identified areas to facilitate faster distribution of staple, Piñol said.
Under the rice trade liberalization law, the NFA has been deregulated and reduced to a buffer stocking agency with its rice supply being sourced only from local farmers.
The NFA’s imported rice stocks will last until September, the end of the lean season or the period when the country has limited palay production, Piñol said.
The NFA has been aggressive in procuring palay from local farmers since its buying price was effectively hiked to P20.70 per kilogram in October 2018.
Earlier, the NFA said it had already bought 4 million 50-kilogram bags of unhusked rice in May, or more than a quarter of its procurement target for 2019, bolstering the claim of the agency that farmers find its buying price attractive.
The food agency said its procurement of 201,250 metric tons of palay as of May 20 has already eclipsed the 71,420 bags (3,571 MT) of rice it bought in the first five months of 2018.
The NFA said it has procured 4.025 million bags as of May 20, which already eclipses the 71,420 bags that the food agency bought in the January-to-May period last year.
The food agency’s procurement in the first five months is 27.83 percent of its target of 14.46 million bags, or 723,000 MT, for 2019.
Its new goal is nearly double its original procurement target of 7.78 million bags, or 389,000 MT, for 2019. It is also significantly higher than the 1.24 million bags, or 62,000 MT, purchased by the food agency from farmers last year.
1 comment
Baka nmn po un 27 per kilos pra sa poor communities eh mapunta n nmn sa mga rice traders…