NFA ASSURES RICE PRICE INCREASE IS NOT DUE TO LACK OF SUPPLY

(NFA) today assured the public that the reported slight increase in rice prices is actually price related and not due to lack of supply.

“We have adequate volume of industry wide rice inventories at this time. The country’s rice stocks, at 1.944 million metric tons, would last for 61 days based on the average national daily requirement of 31,462 MT,” NFA said.

The rice varieties whose prices were observed to have increased by P1-P2/kilogram were of premium, special and aromatic rice, or those with 5 to 15 percent brokens, and not the regular and well-milled varieties traditionally consumed by the majority of consumers, the NFA noted.

Another reason for such an increase in price, NFA says, is that the low-priced stocks held by traders and retailers are starting to be depleted. “Traders are now milling and starting to sell their newly harvested stocks bought at higher ex-farm prices. This harvest season, for example, traders were buying palay from P18 to P24/kg. Thus, when processed into rice, the higher wholesale and retail prices will be passed on to retailers and consumers,” NFA said.

Also, the main harvest that started in late September is almost over and lean months, or the period when there is very low or no harvest is looming (December to February) and it’s normal that prices will slightly increase, the NFA said.

A review of the past three-year period showed that rice prices indeed tend to register slight increase at this period, although this year’s increase is observed to be even lower than during the same period in previous years. In November 2014, the price of regular-milled and well-milled rice were at P40.74 and P43.63/kg.; in 2015 – P38 and P42/kg; in 2016 – P35.97 and P41.80. This month, the average retail prices for regular and well-milled varieties are at P37 and P40/kg.

Nevertheless, NFA assures that the agency is doing its best to arrest any abrupt increase in rice prices. “We continue to sell low-priced NFA rice at P27 and P32/kilogram through our accredited retailers so that consumers will have an option to buy good quality but lower-priced rice,” NFA said.

The agency has also fielded monitoring teams in markets and supermarkets to ensure that NFA rice is available in places where slight rice price increases are noted.

The NFA believes that rice prices will eventually settle down to its previous levels when private sector imports via the minimum access volume (MAV) quota start arriving in December.