Private sector needed to boost rice stocks — DA

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is now looking at involving the private sector in order to meet President Duterte’s directive to increase the country’s food security reserve to 60 days.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the DA and the National Food Authority (NFA) are coming up with a strategy that would include the private rice industry stakeholders in buffer stocking.

“The government can’t do it alone. The 60 days would involve about two million metric tons of rice. We will lose money if we do it alone,” Piñol said.

“We are already working on the details. We will present this concept to the President. We will identify legitimate accredited and established rice traders,” he added.

The new system ensures there will be physical inventory for buffer stocking.

“It will be an actual physical inventory. We will have a contract with the private sector that at any given time, we can get the inventory,” he said.

“The rice business is capital intensive and everything should be on time from buying to selling. Plus prices in the world market are very unstable,” another source said.

“And profit is still the priority in the rice business that is why getting their commitment to store additional volume would be hard and the economics of rice is not a perfect one as it is very volatile and easily affected by supply and demand forces,” the source added.

The agri chief’s proposal on a joint partnership with the private sector may not be also welcomed by the interagency NFA Council and the economic managers, sources said.

Last April, Duterte directed NFA to increase its food security reserve from the current 15 days to 60 days.

The Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) requires NFA to have 15 days buffer stock at any given time and 30 days at the onset of the lean season.

However, NFA has been failing to fulfil its 15-day mandate since late last year amid low palay procurement.