THE National Food Authority (NFA) arrears for the country’s rice importation remains high at P155 billion, only a slight decrease from the previous debts of not less than P179 billion.
NFA Administrator Renan Dalisay, who spoke at the 2015 NFA National Planning Conference and Workshop at Nature’s Village Resort in Talisay City yesterday, said the reduction in the agency’s arrears is mainly due to rice importation at a lower price.
Dalisay said the last US$ 426 per metric ton of rice which the country imported from Vietnam and Thailand recently increased by 20 to 30 dollars per metric ton.
The government budget subsidy for NFA this year is P4.25 billion with P1.8 billion in profit last 2014. Dalisay, however, said it is still not enough to cover up the remaining arrears and the agency has still to utilize a portion of the fund for the ongoing procurement of additional rice.
“The arrears continuously spike also because of the P6 to P7 billion average interest every year,” he said, pointing out as major reason the world crises in 2008 where the country imported as emergency stocks two million tons of rice at US$ 900 dollars per metric ton.
Meanwhile, the NFA national planning conference and workshop is mainly aimed at discussing among all agency-members the ideal rice distribution in every province in the country.
This, by giving considerations to three major variables such as level of poverty incidents, vulnerability to climate change, and effects of El Niño phenomenon.
“Through the help of various agencies like the Philippine Statistics Authority and Philippine Atmospheric Physical and Astronomical Services Administration, we have to decide how much should be distributed to a certain place which ideally corresponds to its specific needs to avoid improper repositioning of NFA rice supply in the country,” Dalisay said.
The national convention, which will run until October 16, also underscores the six-point plan, including the policy directions of the NFA Council and the Department of Finance.
It is in pursuit of a solution on whether the marketing functions of the agency should be separated from its regulatory functions, which are both vital in the movement of rice, Dalisay said.
For Negros Occidental, NFA Provincial Director Procopio Trabajo II said the output of the national conference will serve as the agency’s marketing plan, including the distribution, procurement, and milling targets for the province in 2016.