Malacañang backed the proposal of the National Food Authority Council (NFAC) for the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) to again review the government’s palay-buying price.
Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. admitted in a news briefing on Tuesday that the P17- per-kilogram (kg) support price of the National Food Authority (NFA) is “too low” and discourages farmers from selling their crop to the government.
“The buying price of the NFA is too low, that’s why farmers don’t want to sell their rice to the NFA. If there would be an adjustment in the price and it is realistic, NFA stock wouldn’t be a problem anymore,” Roque said.
He issued the statement after Cabinet Secretary Leoncio B. Evasco Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol on Monday urged the Neda to look into the possibility of raising the government’s palay-buying price.
Economic managers, including the heads of the Neda, Department of Finance and Central Bank, who are part of the NFAC, earlier thumbed down the hike in support price, as it would open the floodgate for inflation on all commodities, Evasco said in a news
briefing on Monday.
He also announced during the briefing that the NFAC is pushing through with the NFA’s purchase of 250,000 metric tons of imported rice via the “government-to-private” scheme. The volume is set to arrive in the country by June, after the rice-harvest reason. Evasco said the government ensured that the timing of the arrival of imports would not coincide with the harvest season, as this could cause farm-gate prices to fall drastically.
The NFA said it was unable to meet its paddy-procurement target last year as traders bought rice from local farmers at P18 to P20 per kg, higher than its buying price of P17 per kg.
The food agency earlier asked the NFAC to increase the NFA’s support price to P22 per kg.
Supply probe
PARTY-LIST Rep. Jose Panganiban Jr. of Anac-IP Partylist, chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture and Food, said the panel will start next week its investigation on the alleged shortfall in the buffer stock of the NFA.
Panganiban told reporters in a news briefing that there is a need to immediately address the situation to stabilize the price of commercial rice.
The lawmaker is one of the authors of the resolution calling for the investigation into the country’s rice inventory and the buffer stock of the NFA.
“In recent report, the NFA admitted that there were only 65,200 metric tons of NFA rice, which would only last for two days due to relief operations for victims of unrest and typhoon last year,” the lawmaker said.
Panganiban also joined other lawmakers in urging the NFAC to raise the government’s palay-buying price to P20 per kg, from the current P17 per kg. Earlier, Rep. Roger G. Mercado of the Lone District of Southern Leyte also asked the NFA to raise its buying price for palay to as much as P25 per kg.
Party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao of Anakpawis has also filed a resolution calling for the increase in procurement of local palay, instead of importing rice from other countries.