NFA seeks higher buying price for palay

MANILA, Philippines — The National Food Authority Council is studying the possibility of raising its buying price for palay from P17 to P18 per kilogram in order to address the problem of the NFA with its buffer stock for rice.

During the hearing of the Senate committee on agriculture and food on the supply and price of rice yesterday, both Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol and NFA administrator Jason Aquino noted it was no longer practical for the government to purchase palay at P17 per kilo.

Aquino said the NFA has been unable to find farmers that sell at P17 per kg and that the national average as of the last quarter of 2017 was already at P18.80 per kg.

However, the claim of Aquino was disputed by National Economic and Development Authority assistant secretary Mercedita Sombilla, a member of the NFA Council, who said there was data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) indicating areas where farmers were selling at P14 to P17 per kg during that period. 

Aquino insisted this was not accurate because the NFA tried to locate farmers selling at those prices but there were none. 

It was theorized by members of farmer-cooperatives during the hearing that the prices being quoted by the PSA were probably for wet palay, which would not be purchased by the NFA because it would only accept palay with a maximum moisture content of 14 percent.

Sen. Cynthia Villar, chair of the committee, said she is amenable to increasing the buying price, but only up to P18 per kg because hiking it further would result in more expensive NFA rice among retailers. 

Villar said the price of rice would go up to around P30 to P34 per kg from the present P27 if the purchase price is raised to P18. 

“I’m even OK with making this permanent just so they would no longer use this as a reason why they could not purchase palay,” Villar said. 

Sens. Nancy Binay and Grace Poe suggested that the NFA be allowed to purchase at a price higher than P17 per kg if that is what is needed to address its buffer stock supply issue and help local farmers.

Sombilla said that the NFA Council would discuss this recommendation in its meeting.

Apart from increasing the buying price of the NFA, Villar urged the agency to request from President Duterte to order the release of rice shipments confiscated at the ports of Zamboanga, Cebu and Subic Bay to them so that these could be used to make up for the deficit in its buffer stock.

The NFA has also been authorized to import rice by the NFA Council but this would only be done in June or after the harvest season in the country. 

At present, Aquino said the buffer stock is equivalent to a mere 1.7 days’ worth of rice when the NFA is mandated to maintain 15 days’ worth. 

Villar scolded the officials of the NFA for coming out with reports about a rice shortage, which she said only led to panic among consumers and an increase in the price of rice in the market.

“The NFA issued press release that there is no more NFA rice. The supply of rice in the Philippines as a whole is different versus the NFA rice. They created confusion. It’s as if you wanted to create panic,” Villar told Aquino.

“If you have no more buffer stock, shouldn’t you have kept quiet because you weren’t doing your job? Do your work. Shouldn’t you be ashamed and kept quiet and do something about it?” she said.

But Aquino said he “just told the truth” that NFA has depleting supply of rice.

Poe said she appreciated Aquino’s transparency but he should have been cautious and offered solutions.

Orlando Manuntag of the Grains Retailers Confederation said they could no longer sell NFA rice due to lack of supply even as they had to pay for operating costs. – With Louise Maureen Simeon, Rhodina Villanueva