The National Food Authority (NFA) is urging the interagency National Food Security Committee (NFSC) to recommend the importation of 250,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to beef up its stockpile.
The NFA Council (NFAC), the highest policy-making body of the NFA, recently approved a standby authority to import 250,000 MT of rice. The NFA is just awaiting the volume that will be approved by the NFSC, which recommends the volume of rice that should be imported by the government for buffer stocking purposes.
“Our [rice] inventory is low, that is why NFA management is urging the immediate replenishment of its buffer stock through importation,” NFA Spokesman Rebecca Olarte told the BusinessMirror on Thursday. Olarte said they are optimistic that the NFSC would recommend the government’s purchase of the entire 250,000 MT of imported rice to augment the rice stockpile of the NFA.
Data obtained by the BusinessMirror showed that the NFA’s current rice stockpile level is good for only three days, way below the 15-day buffer stock mandated by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council at any given time. During the lean season, the NFA is supposed to keep a stockpile good for 30 days.
The 250,000 MT approved by the NFA is good for eight days, at a national daily consumption rate of 31,000 MT. Olarte said the importation of 250,000 MT rice would allow the NFA to sell more affordable rice. “The NFA doesn’t need to compete with commercial traders. It is enough that the NFA is present and available in the market,” she said. “We do not need to have the same volume as the commercial traders have.”
Olarte added the NFA would see to it that unscrupulous traders and retailers would not be able to take advantage of the thin buffer stock of the food agency attached to the Office of the President.
“The whole of 2017 until the prices of commercial rice have remained the same. The price movement is not alarming,” she said.
NFA Administrator Jason L.Y. Aquino said the food agency will continue to sell rice at the government-prescribed prices of P27 per kilogram (kg) for the regular milled variety and P32 per kg for well-milled rice. Aquino made the statement following speculations that rice prices may be affected by the increase in fuel prices under the new tax-reform law.
“As watchdog of national food security, the NFA’s role is to make rice, our basic staple, available, accessible and affordable in any part of the country at all times,” Aquino said.
The NFA administrator also issued a warning to rice traders not to take advantage of the ongoing speculations by unduly increasing prices.
“The NFA implements rice trading rules and regulations, therefore we can sanction any traders who will be violating our laws,” Aquino said.