The National Food Authority (NFA) will put the plan to auction off aging rice stocks on the backburner amid the launch of the P20 per kilo rice program.
The government’s P20 rice initiative, which will be introduced this week, is expected to free up the grains agency’s warehouse, thus allowing the NFA to procure more rice from local farmers during the summer harvest.
“For now, hindi na auction ang priority para mas makinabang ang maramin
Despite this, the NFA chief assured that the trade of rice stocks would eventually push through.
“Itutuloy pa rin [yung auction] but not now,” he added.
Lacson earlier floated the bid to auction off aging rice stocks amid the low distribution rate to local governments despite the declaration of a food security emergency.
This, as the latest data on rice released under the food emergency stood at 20,000 bags despite the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) recent move to expand the allocation that could be availed of by LGUs to 1.35 million bags from the initial 625,600.
“Magpapa-auction ako under the law. [Ang floor price] sa ngayon, wala pa. Pag-aaralan pa natin,” Lacson told reporters in a previous interview assuring that the floor price will not settle below P30 per kilo.
“We will be targeting the auction for the regions na puno ang bodega so that we can free up [warehouses] na then we can buy [palay].”
However, Lacson has yet to disclose the initial volume of aging rice that will be auctioned off.
Currently, the NFA chief said its budget stands at P14.6 billion. Of which P5.6 billion came from carryover funding last year, together with its P9-billion allocation.
Lacson said the grains agency could exhaust this fund to purchase palay, provided there was space in warehouses.
Under the amended Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), the NFA should dispose of its aging rice buffer stock through public auction. Aging stocks are rice that has been stored for over two months and one day.
As of April 24, Lacson noted that out of the 10.1 million sacks of palay in storage, roughly 2.9 million were acquired this year. This brings the total buffer stock to the equivalent of 7.56 million 50-kilo bags of rice, which is enough to feed Filipinos for ten days.
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 RTL.
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