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The National Food Authority (NFA) said its “competitive buying price” allowed it to significantly raise its purchases of paddy rice in February. 

The grains agency said it procured 412,052 50-kilo bags or 20,602.6 metric tons (MT) of palay last month, a big jump from the 12,378 bags or 618.9 MT it bought in February 2024. 

Despite this, the NFA noted that it failed to meet its procurement target of 429,600 bags or 21,480 MT for February. 

“Increase in procurement compared to last month is mainly due to the on-set of harvest season, and the implementation of the Council-approved Price Range Scheme [PRICERS] for palay procurement activity,” the NFA said in its latest accomplishment report. 

Under the grains agency’s program, the NFA buys clean and dry palay at P23 to P30 per kilo, while the price of fresh and wet palay ranges from P17 to P23 per kilo. This flexible price scheme changes weekly per province.

Meanwhile, the NFA said it had a total rice inventory of 6 million bags or 300,023 MT at the end of February.

“It should be noted that NFA’s inventory is 14 percent of the country’s national rice inventory.”

The agency distributed 48,179 bags or 2,409 MT of milled rice during the reference month, 12.75 percent of its target of 377,820 bags or 18,891 MT, despite the declaration of a food security emergency. 

It distributed 1,179.6 MT of rice to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Office of Civil Defense (OCD), legislators, and local governments for relief operations and calamity response. 

About 739.75 MT of rice were distributed to government agencies and local government units (LGU) rice requirement under the Executive Order 51 program, the NFA said.

It added that 105 MT have been distributed to LGUs under the food security emergency program, which was declared to fast-track the release of rice buffer stocks held by the NFA.

This year, the NFA is targeting to procure as much as 880,000 MT of palay to meet its new buffer stock requirement of 15 days as stipulated under the amended Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).

Under the amended RTL, the NFA should maintain a buffer stock enough to cover 15 days of national rice consumption, up from the previous nine-day requirement. 

Last week, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the NFA would need to procure some 20 percent of local supply to move the needle on palay prices.

He said the grains agency is grappling with a limited budget which hampers it from purchasing “significant” volumes from farmers and managing rice inventories through regular sales to the public as it was stripped of its regulatory powers.

The NFA has been purchasing palay at P18 per kilo for fresh harvests and P24 per kilo for clean, dry grains, the Deparment of Agriculture said.

“With its limited authority, the NFA cannot intervene in the market effectively, leaving traders room to suppress palay prices,” he said. “This has led to the current farmgate prices dropping to as low as P14 per kilo.”

Source : businessmirror