The National Food Authority (NFA) said on Thursday the government must import rice soon to replenish the food agency’s thinning stockpiles, and ensure there will be enough food during the lean months.
NFA Administrator Jason Laureano Y. Aquino said the NFA Council (NFAC) has not yet decided on the food agency’s request to import 250,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to beef up its buffer stock.
“Delaying further the approval for the government-to-government importation of the 250,000 MT balance could make it more difficult for the NFA to maintain the minimum levels of food-security rice requirements during normal times, more so during the lean months,” Aquino said in a statement.
He said the NFA has sought the NFAC’s approval for the purchase of rice imports under a government-to-government deal as early as January. The NFA had planned to bring in the imports by April to preposition the stocks in calamity-prone areas.
“The NFA Council had not acted on the request up to this time,” he said.
In 2015 the NFAC approved the 500,000-MT standby authority for buffer stocking to fill the gap in local paddy-rice output caused by El Niño. The NFAC is the highest governing body of the NFA.
Earlier, Cabinet Secretary Leoncio B. Evasco Jr., exofficio chairman of the NFAC, said the council thumbed down Aquino’s proposal to import 1 million metric tons of rice to prevent the agency from incurring more debts.
The NFA is required to maintain a 15-day buffer stock, equivalent to around 400,000 MT, at any given time. During the lean months of July, August and September, when farmers do not usually harvest rice, the NFA is required to have a 30-day buffer stock, equivalent to 800,000 MT. These volumes are based on the current national daily rice-consumption requirement, pegged at 654,400 50-kilogram bags, or 32,720 MT.
The NFA said it has started implementing measures to augment its stockpiles amid the delay in the NFAC’s decision to import 250,000 MT of rice.
“As a stop-gap measure, NFA field officials have been instructed to prudently manage inventories and ensure sufficient supplies to satisfy the food-security requirement for each province,” Aquino said.
“Milling of the agency’s palay stocks would also be fast-tracked to augment the supply of rice,” he added.
The NFA said it temporarily suspended rice sales to farmers’ organizations through the farmers’ cooperative development incentive fee and Farmers’ Incentive Rice Program.
Aquino said he ordered the immediate transfer of rice stocks to regions and provinces with critical inventory levels and to undertake emergency procurement of logistics and services, if necessary, to build up buffer stock inventories in their respective regions.
He expressed concern that the NFA may not be able to reach its palay procurement target of 4.6 million bags, equivalent to 230,367 MT, this year as the farm-gate prices of palay are much higher than the government’s support price.
“In many areas harvesting the summer crop, palay prices have been monitored to range within P18 to P20/kilogram, higher than the NFA’s support price of P17/kg, even with incentives reaching P0.70 to P1/kg,” Aquino said.
The food agency buys palay at P17/kg clean and dry with an additional P0.20/kg drying incentive and P0.20 to P0.50/kg delivery incentive. For farmers’ organizations, an additional P0.30/kg is given as cooperative-development incentive fee. The NFA’s buying price ranges from P17.70 to P18/kg.
The volume of rice imports is recommended by the National Food Security Committee (NFSC). It is composed of the secretary of the National Economic and Development Authority as chairman and the deputy national statistician of the Philippine Statistics Authority as vice chairman.
Based on the NFSC’s assessment of the local harvest and supply situation, the government imports only the shortfall in local harvest for buffer stocking purposes.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes