NFA hikes local palay procurement

MANILA, Philippines — State-run National Food Authority (NFA) purchased over 2,000 metric tons (MT) of palay or unmilled rice in March, more than triple than what it bought in February, but remained below its procurement target.

In its latest accomplishment report, the NFA said it bought 2,113.56 MT of palay from local farmers, more than 245 percent higher than the 618.9 MT it purchased in February.

“This is a slight increase in procurement that can be attributed to the continuous effort of the NFA to serve and assist individual farmers and farmers organization, for them to be able to sell their produce to the NFA,” the agency said.

The volume of palay that the NFA procured in March, however, was just 6.44 percent of its target of buying 33,150 MT from local farmers.

The NFA report indicated that its buying price of palay remained uncompetitive against the price being offered by traders.

At the end of March, the NFA had a total expected milled rice inventory of about 41,553 MT.

The NFA Council, the grain agency’s highest policy-making body, approved a new and higher buying scheme for NFA’s palay procurement program this month.

For the first time, the NFA adopted a flexible buying price range scheme, doing away of its previous mechanism of having a fixed buying price for both wet and dry palay.

The NFA now buys palay between P23 per kilogram and P30 per kilogram for dry palay depending on the prevailing market price in a given area. For fresh and wet palay, the NFA now buys from P17 per kilogram to P23 per kilogram.

The implementing guidelines for the higher and new buying price scheme of NFA were approved on April 18.

NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said the agency was able to buy 170,000 50-kilogram bags of palay, equivalent to 8,500 MT, during the first three days of the effectivity of its higher buying price.