Rice supply starts to stabilize
The Philippines may no longer need an unimpeded rice importation this year which President Duterte would have wanted as the supply of rice now starts to stabilize ahead of the peak of the harvest season for the country's main staple food.
Right now, the country is anticipating the delivery of 750,000 metric tons of imported rice to be procured by the National Food Authority. This is different from the 350,000 MT of rice that major retailers would be allowed to directly purchase abroad as part of the Department of Trade and Industry proposal.
These additional imports were supposed to help temper the nonstop increase in the price of local rice as well as replenish the stocks of NFA.
Now, 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 according to NFA spokesperson Angel Imperial, it may not necessarily happen anymore.
NFA 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.
Imperial said that after that, the agency 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.
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.
Data from Philippine Statistics Authority showed that farm gate price of palay continues to decline by 2.05 percent to ₱22.41 per kilogram 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 ₱45.95 per kilogram, while at the retail trade, the average price is lower by 0.14 percent to ₱49.30 per kilogram on a weekly basis.
Compared to previous week's level, the average wholesale price of regular milled rice at ₱43.08 per kilogram went down by 0.09 percent while the average retail price of regular milled rice inched up by 0.46 percent to ₱46.04 per kilogram.
"We can see through our gradual monitoring that the prices are going down. We are situational. Sizable volume from the existing importation program is still being delivered," Imperial added.
As of now, the country's total rice inventory stands at 1.18 million MT. Of this, 128,000 MT is held by NFA.
NFA Deputy Administrator and officer-in-charge Tomas R. Escarez said he is optimistic that the agency could procure 2.6 million bags of palay, a move to be supported by an initial budget of ₱7 billion.
If successful, this could help fill the agency's buffer stock with sufficient amount of rice sans importation.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said an initial fund of ₱6.7 billion has been allocated for the aggressive local palay procurement program.
NFA has launched its national local paddy rice procurement program in San Jose, Mindoro Occidental by offering an additional incentive of
₱3 per kilo, on top of the ₱17.70 per kilo buying price, for clean and dry paddy rice.
The ₱3 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 ₱11 to ₱17.
The local procurement program with the added incentive is also aimed at establishing a support price for farmers who maybe affected by the lifting of the quantitative restrictions on imported rice.