NFA buys 4.7-M bags of palay in Jan-May
Credit to Author: EIREENE JAIREE GOMEZ| Date: Fri, 07 Jun 2019 16:17:22 +0000
A total of 4.768 million 50-kilogram bags of palay (unhusked rice) were procured from farmers by the National Food Authority (NFA) from January to May this year.
In a statement, the NFA said the figure was significantly higher than procurements during the same period in the last five years.
Year-on-year (yoy), palay bought soared by 6,256 percent from only 75,020 bags. From January to May 2017, NFA purchased 252,520 bags; 1.22 million bags in 2016; 1.71 million bags in 2015; and 146,580 bags in 2014.
NFA acting administrator Tomas Escarez attributed the sharp increase in NFA’s palay procurement to the agency’s buffer stocks buffer stocking incentive (BSI) program, which gives local farmers a P3.70 incentive per kilo to the P17 per kilo buying price, or a total of P20.70 per kilo for clean and dry paddy rice.
The national average farmgate price of palay continued to fall as of the third week of May, reaching P18.26 per kilo, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed. Palay prices have also gone down to as low as P14 per kilo in some areas in the country.
The passage of Republic Act 11203 or the Rice Liberalization Law removed NFA’s rice importation function and repealed its regulatory powers over the grains industry. Under the liberalized rice trading scheme, the NFA will no longer be allowed to import rice as its role was confined to buffer-stocks management for emergencies and calamities through buying palay solely from local farmers.
“We are happy that the more we buy, the more farmers gain higher incomes as farm-gate prices continue to dip. Our procurement operations are done on a year-round basis, and we are ready to buy as long as farmers have palay to sell to us,” Escarez said.
The NFA is currently preparing for the onset of the lean months from July to September when harvests are almost nil and natural calamities hit the country.
“With so much stockpile of palay, we have already given the green light for NFA field offices to start their milling operations so that there will be enough supply of good-quality rice for the requirements of government relief agencies and local government units in any emergency or calamity that traditionally hit the lean months period,” Escarez said.
For 2019, the NFA is targeting to procure about 7.78 million bags or 389,000 metric tons of palay. “At the rate we are buying palay, we are optimistic the NFA will be able to effectively meet its buffer stocking requirements of rice supply good for 15-30 days or 15 to 30 million bags,” he added.
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