NFA To Buy Summer Palay Crop

NFA to buy 3.78 million bags of palay from summer crop.

The National Food Authority (NFA) is eyeing to buy 3.78 million bags of palay from the summer crop at a maximum-support price of P17 per kilogram, depending on moisture content.

While the fertilizer incentive was removed following the slide in the price of chemical fertilizers, the agency has increased the incentive for cooperative development to P0.30 per kilogram and the drying and transport incentives at P0.20 per kg each, the NFA said.

The 3.78 million bags are around 190,000 metric tons (MT) of milled rice, or enough to meet six days of the country’s daily consumption rate of 33,000 MT.

“We are expecting that the average volume of palay bought daily will even increase in the coming days as the summer harvest peaks,” NFA Administrator Jessup Navarro said in a statement.

Navarro said the agency has programmed to buy 1.13 million bags of palay in March, 1.46 million bags in April, 1.18 million bags in May and 301,500 bags in June.

The NFA said it will procure 18 million bags of palay from local farmers this year, equivalent to around 900,000 MT of milled rice. Earlier, the NFA said it will again borrow from commercial banks to fund its palay-buying program.

The agency expects to buy more palay in Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Cagayan Valley, Central Mindanao and Ilocos Region.

Last year, the government targeted to buy 20 million bags of palay, equivalent to 1 million metric tons (MMT) of rice, as part of efforts to reduce imports from neighboring countries such as Vietnam and Thailand.

The NFA said it will not make any tender for rice this year, following Manila’s decision to go for government-to-government negotiations to meet its requirements from overseas markets.

While paddy rice production hit a record 16.81 MMT last year, Manila was forced to buy 1.5 MMT of rice from Vietnam to beef up its buffer stocks and plug a production shortfall.

By Business Mirror

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