Buffer stock boosted by rice

imports – NFA
BY EIREENE JAIREE GOMEZ – THE MANILA TIMES
MARCH 12, 2019

THE National Food Authority (NFA) is exerting all efforts to boost

the country’s buffer stock to provide Filipino consumers, particularly
those from the marginalized sector, with affordable rice.

Latest data from the NFA showed a total of 203,000 metric tons (MT)
of 25-percent broken long grain white rice from Thailand and Vietnam
have arrived under government-to-government (G to G) tenders.

Of another 500,000 MT under the open tender scheme, a total of

478,050 MT has also been delivered with the balance already in transit
and expected to arrive soon.

The imports, which are part of the 1.25 million MT ordered last year,
were discharged in the ports of Manila, Subic, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro,
Davao, General Santos City, La Union, Surigao, Tacloban and
Zamboanga.

The country has imported rice from Thailand and Vietnam since these
are the only ones with existing memorandums of agreement with the
Philippines. The rice imports are meant to increase the NFA’s market
participation and beef up its own inventory.

With the implementation of Republic Act 11203 or the Rice

Tariffication Law, however, the NFA will no longer be allowed to
import rice and will have to buy its buffer stock from local farmers.
The NFA said its current imported rice inventory stood to last until
August this year, prompting the agency to ramp up its nationwide
palay (unmilled rice) procurement program. In the first two months of
2019, the NFA’s total palay procurement reached 232,447 bags, a 22-
fold increase from the 10,960 bags procured a year ago.

NFA acting administrator Tomas Escarez said more farmers were now
selling their harvests to the NFA after its policy-making body NFA
Council approved an additional P3 per kilogram buffer stocking
incentive (BSI) in October last year.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol also assured the NFA would

continue buying farmers’ produce and sell rice at P27 per kilo in spite
of its new role as a buffer stocking agency.

The NFA releases rice at P25 per kilo to accredited retailers who sell
at P27 per kilo to consumers across the country.

Before the enactment of RA 11203, the NFA was mandated to have at

least 15-days worth of buffer stock at any given time except during the
lean seanson when it is required to have 30-day buffer stock which
could only be released during calamities and emergencies.

Based on the amended implementing rules and regulations of the new

law, the NFA will adopt the “rolling buffer stocking” scheme — buy
palay from local farmers all-year round with an optimal level of buffer
stock good for 30 days and release the aged stock once it reaches the
optimal level.

In 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered to have at least 60 days’

worth of buffer stock. To bring down rice prices and ensure the
availability of the staple food, the government decided to flood the
market with impored rice.
Meanwhile, the NFA said it had readied a total of 303 palay buying
stations nationwide as the agency prepares to procure a sizeable
portion of the summer crop harvest starting this month.

The NFA currently maintains more than 300 warehouses across the
country with total capacity of 22 million bags or about 30 days of
national daily consumption requirement.

https://www.manilatimes.net/buffer-stock-boosted-by-rice-imports-nfa/524174/