The NFA Council recently raised the grains corporation’s buying price for fresh or wet to a range of P17 and P23 and clean and dry to P23 and P30. Clean and dry should at least be 90 percent pure and a moisture of no more than 14 percent, while fresh and wet must have a moisture range of 22-29.9 percent.
The previous buying prices were a range of P16-P19 a kilo for fresh or wet, and P19-P23 per kilo for clean and dry.
“This new pricing scheme will mark a new era for NFA palay buying,” said NFA acting administrator Larry Lacson.
“This is unique in a sense that different provinces will have different prices depending on the conditions in the province such as prevailing farm gate price, remaining harvest, and most importantly the target palay procurement for the area,” he added.
The NFA abandoned a single pricing system to take into account the support price provided by some local government units to help improve farmers’ income by being a viable alternative to private traders.
The Rice Tariffication Law has stripped the NFA of its rice trading responsibilities and limited it to buffer stocking to ensure rice supply in case of disasters and calamities.
RTL requires NFA to maintain a stock of around 300,000 tons of rice, which is enough for 9 days consumption.
The NFA Council had to raise buying prices for palay after prolonged high farm gate prices persist to secure supply. (PR/DA-NFA)
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