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THE National Food Authority (NFA) will auction off more than 50,000 metric tons (MT) of aging rice stocks in June.

NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said the fourth round of auction, which was initially scheduled for early May, will be moved to June as the agency revises the guidelines.

“We’re trying to determine the floor price based on the current numbers,” Lacson told reporters on Monday.

He said the NFA will slightly increase the floor price following the uptick in retail rice prices.

The previous prices range from P22 to P28 per kilo, depending on how long the rice has been stored. The approved volume tends to cover milled rice stocks aged over three months to 18 months.

“The price of rice increased, and it’s only declining now. We have to consider the prevailing price and the price of imported rice because you can’t determine the [floor price] without looking at those,” Lacson said.

He explained, however, that the strict implementation of the P50 per kilo price cap on imported rice and the bid to impose a suggested retail price (SRP) on local rice at P53 per kilo could dampen the appetite for NFA auction.

“If prices of rice are higher outside, it’s more attractive to purchase in the auction since it’s cheaper. But if it’s otherwise, the interest of prospective participants could wane,” Lacson said.

While the grains agency plans to hold an auction regularly, the NFA chief said the volume on succeeding trade will be fewer to accommodate the government’s P20 per kilo cheaper rice program.

“The auction will be continuous, since there’ll always be aging rice stocks. Toward the end of the year, however, [the volume] will gradually decrease because of the President’s instruction to triple the speed of the P20 rice distribution,” Lacson said.

For 2026, the NFA is targeting to procure 790,000 MT of palay.

Currently, Lacson said the grains agency has purchased around 25,000 MT of palay at a range of P25 to P30 per kilo depending on location. He aims to procure around 10 percent of palay being harvested.

The NFA fell short of its procurement target of more than 300,000 MT as of early May due to “strong” buying prices from private traders.

The grains agency bought 13,127 MT or 262,540 50-kilo bags of palay from January through the first week of May, accounting for 4.2 percent of its 313,315 MT procurement target for the period.

Source : businessmirror