Private rice traders tapped in milling

MALOLOS CITY, Bulacan — The National Food Authority (NFA) in this province has collaborated with 12 private rice traders to mill around 600,000 bags of palay from the agency’s warehouse this month.

According to NFA Bulacan Provincial Manager Ed Camua, the 12 private traders are from the Intercity Industrial Estate in Bocaue that took part in the test milling of the NFA’s palay inventories in the province.

The agency currently has only five rice mills in Central Luzon with only a capacity of milling 2,400 bags of palay per day. With the current number of rice mills, NFA 3 regional director Piolito Santos said that the national government needs the help of privately-owned rice mills.

There are 1.9 million bags of palay inside NFA warehouses all over Central Luzon and only five rice mills, the agency has neither the capacity nor the timeframe to comply with the scheduled milling period of palay.

“The milling of palay stocks is part of the NFA’s compliance (with) the instruction that we must have ‘rolling buffer stock development,’ which means that we buy from the farmers and distribute it immediately,” Santos said.

The director pointed out that the agency can monetize its palay stocks and roll the subsidy to buy more palay from farmers. He added the national government works hand-in-hand with the private sector to develop the grain industry.

“It is the agency’s mission to promote the integrated growth and modernization of the rice and corn marketing industry to enable to compete in the global market,” he said.

The NFA 3 has already utilized the private sector by tapping 50 private rice traders to mill 24,000 bags of palay per day. Santos said that the milled palay became the buffer stock of the government, adding that the palay inventory needs to be milled, replenished and help decongest their warehouses.