THE National Food Authority will auction its rice stocks in August to free up storage space in its warehouses, NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said on Tuesday.
The NFA Council has approved the guidelines for the public sale, Lacson said, noting that NFA staff had been instructed to assess the quality of three-month-old and five-month-old stocks in each region in the country.
The floor price for the sale would be based on world market rates, which is part of the NFA Council-approved guidelines, Lacson pointed out.
However, he also expressed apprehension about the auction.
“As I said, if you are going to have an auction, ideally, the market condition is that rice prices are high. Now, [if] you are going to have an auction at the lowest prices, I do not know if there would be any takers,” Lacson said.
He reiterated that the problem, at the moment, is that the average price of rice is very low.
The NFA currently has 437,000 metric tons or 8.7 million 50-kilo bags of rice stocks as of late June. This is equivalent to 12 days of national consumption.
Freeing up storage remains a problem for the NFA.
Lacson said the agency has already opened some of its newly renovated warehouses even before full completion to accommodate more farmers selling palay.
However, these storage spaces are now full as well.
The NFA’s rice stocks are being released through various government programs such as the P20/kg or Benteng Bigas Meron Na (BBM Na!) program.
The Office of the Government Corporate Counsel said that, aside from auctions, the NFA can now sell directly to government agencies.
For instance, Lacson said, the NFA has tapped the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to purchase rice to feed inmates.
However, the rate of release is slower than the NFA’s desired pace, Lacson added.
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