NFA: Palay floor price to stay above single-digit

MANILA, Philippines — The National Food Authority (NFA) yesterday assured rice farmers that the floor price for palay procurement will not be reduced to single-digit levels, easing concerns that farmers would be forced to sell their harvest at a tremendous loss.

NFA Administrator Larry del Rosario Lacson said the agency would maintain its current buying prices for quality palay despite reports of farmgate rates plunging to as low as P6 per kilo in some provinces.

“The national government, or the NFA in particular, will not do that because we would like to really help our farmers that are in distress right now. Their situation is very difficult. We will not buy at a single-digit price per kilo,” Lacson said in mixed English and Filipino during a press conference in Quezon City.

Lacson explained that the NFA normally buys wet unhusked rice at P17 to P23 per kilo, while clean and dry palay, which they prefer, fetches P23 per kilo.

He said that storm-damaged palay would be bought at P2 to P3 less per kilo than the regular price, depending on the extent of the damage.

Lacson said the Department of Agriculture is once again seeking P3 billion from the national government to buy palay directly from farmers.

“It will cover the cost of buying the palay, rent for warehouses and the logistics,” Lacson said.

“And because most of these will be storm-damaged palay, we need to have it dried. Or if these have already been dried, we need to have it milled immediately,” he added.

Lacson pointed out that the NFA is also studying the implementation of a variable floor price per province to better reflect differences in production costs and market conditions across rice-growing areas.

He said the NFA currently holds 446,000 metric tons, or 8.9 million bags of milled rice, enough to supply the country for 12 days.