NFA OKs more competitive P30/k palay buying price

MANILA, Philippines — State-run National Food Authority (NFA) is optimistic that it can now compete better with private traders in buying local palay after it was allowed to purchase palay or unmilled rice by as much as P30 per kilogram.

The NFA council, the highest policy-making body of the grains agency, approved yesterday the NFA’s higher buying price for palay in a bid to boost the government’s rice buffer stock.

The higher buying price is aimed at allowing the NFA to purchase more palay from local farmers, thus beefing up its rice buffer stock that has been below target level.

The state-run agency has been struggling to buy palay from farmers due to its uncompetitive buying price that was below the prevailing market price offered by private traders.

“The buying price was increased so that the NFA can catch up with the price being offered by traders today,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Arnel de Mesa said in a press briefing.

The NFA will now buy dry and clean palay for P23 to P30 per kilogram, depending on the prevailing market price in a given province.

Previously, the NFA bought dry and clean palay for P19 to P23 per kilogram.

For wet and fresh palay, the NFA’s buying price range will now be from P17 to P23 per kilogram from the previous P16 to P19 price level.

This is the second time that the NFA’s palay buying price has been increased under the Marcos administration.

But this is the first time that the NFA will be implementing a more flexible buying price scheme, which allows it to buy palay based on the prevailing farmgate price in a province.

The NFA used to follow a fixed buying price set by the NFA council across all its buying stations nationwide, with additional price incentives being given to farmers depending on the quality of the palay sold.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., who chairs the NFA council, earlier told The STAR that it was necessary for the NFA to adopt a buying price range instead of a fixed price so that it “can play the market like a trader in buying palay.”

NFA OIC-administrator Larry Lacson said the agency would fast-track the issuance of the guidelines on the new buying price so that the new price range could take effect as early as next week.

The higher buying price would allow the NFA to aggressively buy more palay from farmers, Lacson added.

“There is no uniform price nationwide unlike before. It is now on a per province basis. We will issue a price bulletin for each province,” Lacson said.

The STAR reported earlier that the NFA failed to meet its palay procurement target for the second consecutive month this year in February due to its uncompetitive buying price level.

The NFA missed its full-year procurement target last year due to multiple factors. It was only able to buy 78,418 MT of palay, only 15 percent of its approved target of 495,000 MT.