THE Department of Agriculture has yet to complete the investigation on the controversial and anomalous sale of National Food Authority (NFA) rice to some businessmen at unfavorable and disadvantaged prices, making it difficult for the government to purchase palay from farmers.
NFA Acting Administrator Larry Lacson previously stated that the agency cannot match the prices offered by traders to farmers, ranging from 27 to 30 pesos per kilogram.
To address this, the NFA Council recently approved a new procurement price for palay at 17-23 pesos/kg for fresh palay and 23-30 pesos/kg for dried palay.
On Monday, April 22, the NFA began purchasing palay from local farmers to ensure the sufficiency of the agency’s rice supply.
“Well, it should help the farmers earn more money while we can do buffer stocking,” Sec. Francisco “Kiko” Laurel Jr. Dept of Agriculture stated.
“The impact of this is we will have more supply or stocks, so it’s nationwide buying now starting this week. We’re hoping to buy a lot this week, and if there are still more, until next week,” Larry Lacson, Acting Administrator, NFA said.
However, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) criticized NFA’s move. According to the agri group, it’s too late to purchase palay when the harvest season is almost over.
“Another problem is being too late or a little bit late. Right now, or before this happened, they had around a 1-day stock level equivalent to 1-day consumption. I think they won’t be able to reach the 9-days now, even if they increase the price, they will get only a small amount,” said Raul Montemayor, National Manager, FFF.
On the other hand, the NFA explained they can still catch up with palay purchases as some provinces still have standing crops.
“It’s true that it’s almost over. We’ve been saying that we’re just catching up. So, for me, better late than never, right?” added Lacson.
“We will buy as much we can all available because the harvest is better as like this dry season, this summer versus the wet season,” he added.
Based on NFA data from February, the inventory of NFA rice buffer stock is just over 41,000 metric tons.
This is equivalent to just over one day of consumption, and is far from the nine-day minimum requirement stored by the agency for use in case of a severe calamity in the Philippines.
PBBM’s directive to expedite agri imports process will only benefit smugglers—FFF
The Federation of Free Farmers also criticized PBBM’s directive to the Department of Agriculture to expedite the process of importing agricultural products.
Apart from that, they also aim to reduce customs tariffs, which hinders trade, including quotas, import licensing systems, regulations that, according to FFF, will pave the way for more rampant smuggling in the Philippines.
“The smugglers might increase, or if they won’t pay much attention to the containers, we won’t know what’s inside them, maybe they don’t have quarantine permits. In their haste to get the cargoes in— I’m sure smugglers will take advantage of that,” according to Raul Montemayor, National Manager, FFF.
Montemayor pointed out that strengthening local production is the solution to lowering the prices of goods— not importation.
He believes that the advice from PBBM’s economic managers is not helpful as it contradicts what is happening, especially for the agri sector.
“It’s been said that NEDA had a public consultation with importers. So, the feedback they received would be one-sided because they never consulted the farmers or other stakeholders about this. Then they probably fed it to the president, which makes it appear that this is the solution to lowering prices of goods. They’re fooling the president again,” added Montemayor.
As of now, the Department of Agriculture has yet to any statement regarding PBBM’s directive.
