No cheap rice in local market

Despite receiving the go-ahead to import, the state-owned National Food Authority (NFA) said consumers have to buy commercial rice in the next few months as the shipments of the low-priced staple were expected to arrive by June or July.

The grains agency also decried accusations that it was in collusion with a syndicate or the so-called “rice cartel,” causing the NFA’s buffer stock shortage.

“The NFA’s buffer stock is on the road to depletion and that means our poor countrymen won’t be able to enjoy the availability and affordability of NFA rice in the next few months,” NFA Administrator Jason Aquino said.

“It is highly lamentable that some individuals or groups would rather find fault elsewhere, rather than help in finding solutions to the problem of low government food security stocks so we could immediately bring back to the markets affordable NFA rice for the masses,” he added.

According to Aquino, the possibility of an NFA shortage had been anticipated by the agency’s management as early as the last quarter of 2017, “that’s why a request for rice importation was submitted to the [policy-making] NFA Council in October to immediately replenish dwindling government buffer stocks.”

For 2017, the NFA Council allowed 250,000 metric tons (MT) of rice importation, the balance of the 500,000 MT earlier approved for 2016. The volume was good to last for seven to eight days based on the national daily consumption requirement of 32,000 MT, or still below the required 15-day buffer stock.

“NFA’s local palay procurement was likewise very low given the big difference in the agency’s palay support price of P17 per kilo versus private traders’ price of P18 to P22 per kilo,” NFA said in a statement.

The Department of Agriculture, the NFA, President Duterte and other industry groups have been calling for an increase in the grains agency’s buying price for palay.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol suggested an increase of P3 while the NFA had wanted it raised by P5 a kilo.

With the NFA’s low buying price, it is forced to resort to importation to maintain its required inventory and ensure stable supply and prices of the staple despite the local rice sector’s record harvest last year.