ANI gets original proponent status for proposed JV arrangement with NFA

Listed AgriNurture Inc. (ANI) said the National Food Authority (NFA) had granted granted “original proponent status” to its unsolicited joint venture (JV) proposal for the financing and purchase of imported rice to help augment the country’s buffer stock.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, ANI said it had received a letter from NFA acknowledging receipt of its proposal and which stated that the company had been considered and recognized as original proponent.

Under the proposed JV agreement, the ANI consortium will finance the supply of NFA rice with no cash out on the part of government. Both parties will jointly determine the origin, suppliers, delivery and arrival periods, packing and loading and discharging ports. The NFA, on the other hand, will solely determine the type of commodity to be imported, the specifications and quantity.

As accepted by the NFA, the ANI consortium will import as much as 500,000 metric tons of rice, equivalent to two weeks national inventory of subsidized NFA rice per quarter. Since the NFA will not release a single peso for said purchases, the agency can use its budget to buy more palay from local farmers or import more rice as needed.

Under its mandate, NFA is required to ensure national food security and to stabilize supply and prices of staple cereals like rice, both in the farm and consumer levels. At any given time, the agency is required to maintain a rice buffer stock good for 15 days, and good for 30 days during lean months. Since the Philippine daily rice requirement is estimated at 32,750 metric tons, ANI’s 500,000 metric ton importation is just enough to fill NFA’s 15-day requirement.