QUEZON CITY (PIA) — The P557-million revenue that the National Food Authority (NFA) could earn from implementing rice price hike would be a big boost to the agency’s operations.
In an interview during the Oct. 3 episode of Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon on PTV4, NFA administrator Larry Lacson said that the P557-M sales revenue would help offset the agency’s operations budget deficit.
“Operational expenses include buying of palay (unmilled rice) from farmers, transportation cost, fuel, and other costs,” Lacson said.
On Oct. 2, the NFA said it could gain P557.3 million in additional revenue with the higher selling price.
He noted that the NFA Council approved the increase in the selling price of NFA rice to P38 per kilogram from P25/kg to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Pressed on the possible challenges in the implementation of the new pricing scheme, Lacson said, “We don’t see any problems because the selling of higher-priced rice is a government-to-government transaction – we sell the rice to different frontline agencies including the DSWD, Office of Civil Defense, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, local government units, and some of our government legislators.”
He added, “In fact, the DSWD is our biggest client, buying its rice stock from the NFA.”
Asked about the NFA’s rice buffer stock, Lacson said, “In total, that is, from January until Sept. 30 this year, we were able to buy nearly five million bags of rice – both milled and palay.”
So far, we have a stock of 3.3 million bags or 167,000 metric tons, which improved our buffer stock to five days.
“Our target is a nine-day buffer stock and we are already on the five-day mark. Consider that we are already in the harvest season, and by 3rd and 4th week, harvesting will peak until early November,” he said.
“The NFA expects to boost its rice stock, and buy more and more palay from farmers. By then, we will be able to hit a full buffer stock,” he added.
In an earlier statement, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said, “The higher selling price agreed to by the DSWD will help not only reduce NFA losses but also give it additional resources to buy more palay from our farmers.” (PIA DMD)
