RICE STARTS TO STABILIZE
Gov’t allocates 16.7 B to buy palay from local farmers
T he Philippines may no longer need an “unimpeded rice importation” this year as the supply of rice has started to stabilize ahead of the peak of the harvest season.
Right now, the country is anticipating the delivery of 750,000 metric tons (MT) of imported rice to be procured by the National Food Authority (NFA). Apart from this, major retailers have
been authorized to directly purchase 350,000 MT of rice as part of the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) proposal.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol also revealed that the government has allocated an initial fund of P6.7 billion for the aggressive local palay procurement program.
NFA Deputy Administrator Tomas R. Escarez, who now serves as the agency’s officer-in-charge, said that with the palay procurement fund he is optimistic that the agency could procure 2.6 million bags of palay.
If successful, this could help fill the agency's buffer stock with sufficient amount of rice without resorting to importation, Escarez said.
President Duterte recently authorized the “unimpeded importation” of rice to boost local supply and lower prices in the market.
The President acknowledged that the “stomach comes first” as he underscored the need to continue importing rice to keep sufficient government stockpiles and ensure the availability of affordable rice to families.
These additional imports were supposed to help temper the non-stop increase in the price of local rice as well as replenish the stocks of NFA.
The original plan of NFA is to squeeze in three bidding process in the span of more than a month to cover the importation of the 750,000 MT of rice.
But NFA spokesperson Angel Imperial said it may not necessarily happen anymore.
NFA already conducted last week the pre-bid conference for the purchase and supply of the first 250,000 MT of imported rice, which will be done through an open tender scheme. The supply contracts are expected to be awarded next week.
After that, Imperial said the NFA will not immediately conduct another importation and would instead check if there's still a need for it.
“For the next 250,000 MT of rice, it has already been approved but we will still look at it. We will look at the market, the supply and demand, and then we will again make recommendations to the NFA Council," Imperial said in a phone interview.
With all the pending rice importation, the farm-gate price of palay continues to drop during the last week of September, while the cost of well- and regular-milled price were also mostly down.
A data from Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that farmgate price of palay continues to decline by 2.05 percent to P22.41 per kilogram (/kg) week-on-week. Compared to the average price in the same period of the previous year, it rose by 16.54 percent.
At the wholesale trade, the wholesale price of well milled rice fell by 0.20 percent to P45.95/kg, while at the retail trade, the average price is lower by 0.14 percent to P49.30/kg on a weekly basis.
Meanwhile, compared to previous week's level, the average wholesale price of regular-milled rice at P43.08/ kg went down by 0.09 percent, while the average retail price of regular milled rice inched up by 0.46 percent to P46.04/kg.
“We can see through our gradual monitoring that the prices are going down. We are situational. Sizable volume from the existing importation program are still being delivered,” Imperial said.
As of now, the country's total rice inventory stands at 1.18 million MT. Of this, 128,000 MT is held by NFA.
Meanwhile, the NFA launched on Friday its national local paddy rice procurement program in San Jose, Mindoro Occidental by offering an additional incentive of P3 per kilo, on top of the P17.70 per kilo buying price, for clean and dry paddy rice.
The P3 additional incentive per kilo marks the first time that the NFA provided a higher payment for the farmers' produce since 2008 when the buying price of palay was increased from P11 to P17.
The local procurement program with the added incentive is also aimed at establishing a support price for farmers who may be affected by the lifting of the Quantitative Restrictions (QR) on imported rice.