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Friday, April 04, 2008
NFA mulls buying 'summer rice crops'
MANILA -- The National Food Authority (NFA) is eyeing to purchase "summer rice crops" to augment the country's buffer stock in light of the continuing increase in the prices and declining supply of rice in the world, NFA administrator Jessup Navarro said.
"This would be used to increase the buffer stock of the NFA. So aside from the imported rice, there would be additional rice stock from the domestic sources," Navarro said.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the NFA would be buying the palay (unhusked rice) that is up for harvesting this summer at P17 instead of the regular price of P12. The Department of Agriculture (DA) is expecting up to 7 million metric tons (MTs) of rice to be harvested during the summer season.
Yap said the higher price is a form of support for the farmers and at the same time help ensure that the government would have more grain supplies.
He added that the support price or P17 per kilo rate of palay is just temporary until the problem on rice supply becomes stable. He said they would be monitoring the situation closely to determine until when the higher purchasing price would be in effect.
Yap said the palay that would be bought at P17, once milled, could be sold at P22 to P25 per kilo by the NFA.
He stressed that the new rates of palay would not affect the price of the P18.25 NFA rice, as the rice that would be sold at P22 to P25 per kilo would fall under the "commercial grade rice" category.
Navarro said his office has already drawn up a mechanism on how the purchases would be made.
He said the NFA offices in the regions would go around to determine where the palays are up for harvesting and they would be buying directly from the farmers.
He added that they would be using a credit line from Land Bank of the Philippines in purchasing the palay.
Navarro and Yap said the decision to buy the palay at a higher price stemmed from reports where some traders, retailers, and millers offer as much as P18 per kilo of palay, while in other areas there are palays that continue to be bought at P9.50 to P10.50 particularly during harvest time.
The agriculture chief admitted that the continued talks of rising prices and dwindling supply of rice in the world market leads to hoarding and even manipulation of prices.
Yap said they would look into the reported practice of some foreign traders to visit provinces like Isabela to buy and secure rice supply ahead of local traders, which leads to hoarding and price manipulation but he feels that as businessmen, these foreigners simply wants to get ahead of their competition.
He added that such practice could be considered as part of "a free enterprise."
Yap, however, assured that the government would continue to ensure that there would be continued access and enough supply of rice in the country, whether the stock is increased through importation or local purchases. (Sunnex) |
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