A rice store in Digos City displays prices noticeable for being all above P30. —ELDIE AGUIRRE
DIGOS CITY—The National Food Authority (NFA) could not buy rice from local farmers for more than P17 per kilogram but could import rice from Vietnam or Thailand for P24 per kg.
The reason? Rules that prohibit the NFA, an agency under the Department of Agriculture (DA), from spending more than P17 per kg on locally grown rice.
The budget limit, according to Lucia Balayon, NFA provincial manager for Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental, is forcing the NFA out of competition with private traders, who buy rice from local farmers for at least P19 per kg.
“It’s sad to note that we could not directly compete with traders,” said Balayon.
The fixed budget for NFA was “way too low” compared with farm gate prices being offered by private traders which range from P19 to P25 per kg, said Balayon.
Not competitive
Farmers, she said, would naturally sell their produce for a higher price.
“There would be no reason for rice farmers to sell their palay to the NFA given the discrepancy,” Balayon said.
This was partly the reason the NFA office serving the two Davao provinces was running out of rice, she said.
The other reason was that imported rice, which the NFA buys for P24,000 per metric ton, has not arrived, she added.
In Iligan City, Rosita Tabugo, NFA official for Iligan and Lanao del Norte, made the same observation.
She said that while the NFA wanted to buy from local rice farmers, the current NFA pricing was uncompetitive.
“We cannot compete with rice traders’ buying price,” she told the Inquirer.
Tedious
What if the NFA increased its buying price now?
Tabugo said it would still not help because “the reality is that many farmers are indebted to traders.” “They borrow money from traders during the planting season,” she said.
Besides, Tabugo said the NFA could not just increase its buying price.
Increasing the NFA’s buying price has to go through a process and has to be approved by the NFA Council.
In October last year, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol recommended an increase in the NFA’s buying price by at least P3 per kg to be more competitive.
But NFA Administrator Jason Aquino, in a previous interview, said raising the buying price of the NFA by even just a centavo was not easy.
The NFA Council, headed by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr., has to approve the budget hike. —ELDIE AGUIRRE AND RICHEL UMEL, WITH A REPORT FROM ALLAN NAWAL