There were early warning signs that the National Food Authority was in trouble. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the rice stock held by the food agency as of January 1 fell by 80 percent to 106,860 metric tons from the previous year’s 547,460 MT. The NFA also failed to beef up its rice stockpile during the main harvest based on figures from the PSA. Its rice stock of 191,860 MT as of October 1, 2017, was nearly 65 percent lower than the 545,990 MT recorded a year ago. The volume continued to decline, prompting the food agency to warn in January that its rice buffer stock would be wiped out in two months.
The food agency’s hands were practically tied. It could not import sans the go signal of the NFA Council, the highest policy-making body of the NFA, and it could not buy local rice because there was little harvest during the months of December to February. Also, the food agency’s support price was simply uncompetitive compared to the prices being offered by traders. Its plea to raise government-support price temporarily was shot down by the NFAC, as it could accelerate inflation.
Despite the announcement of the NFA that its rice stockpile had been nearly wiped out on April 4, the hemming and hawing among concerned government officials continued. Unfortunately, their talk will not produce the rice needed by the poor and the victims of natural disasters. This probably led to the decision of President Duterte to step in and put an end to the dilemma of the NFA by declaring that the food agency will now be under his supervision. Duterte himself ordered the food agency to import 500,000 MT of rice, which would arrive next month.
By practically acting as the country’s rice czar, the President has removed the bureaucratic delays that have made it difficult for the NFA to fulfill its mandate. Many in Duterte’s economic team seem to have forgotten that, until and unless Congress has enacted measures that would abolish the food agency or reinvent its role, the NFA would continue to perform its functions.
Unfortunately, the President’s decision to let the NFA import 500,000 MT of rice may be a case of too little, too late. The volume would arrive in May, just in time for the lean season, which would start in July. But from now until the imports arrive, the NFA would have to make do with a thinning stockpile. And it looks as though the food agency would have difficulty hitting its procurement goal in the months of April and May.
Duterte already taken the first step as rice czar to at least stop prices from skyrocketing by ordering the importation. But it would be interesting to see what he would do in the next few months, when the NFA would again be confronted with difficulties in beefing up its stockpile via domestic procurement. The President has declared before that his administration’s priority is to buy more rice from local farmers, so he must take the necessary steps to make this happen.