Economist Roehlano Briones, a senior research fellow at government think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), is wary that returning the rice import power to the National Food Authority (NFA) for buffer stocking during emergencies could be abused.
He said other options should have been considered like allowing entities like the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to import on behalf of NFA, to which a rice stakeholder’s group agreed.
“The government should have explored other options for importation to obtain buffer stock,” Briones said in a statement made after the House approved on third reading the amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law and the charter of NFA.
The House is granting NFA the power to import rice as a last resort.
Briones told Business Mirror that “I think we could actually explore other options for being able to obtain the buffer stock...allowing other entities like the Department of Trade and Industry [DTI] to do the importation on behalf of NFA, that could have been considered.”
He also expressed concern over the definition of “emergency, with the current definition as buffer stocking during calamity.”
“Apparently the definition is being taken or the association is being made that emergency includes instances of price increase and alleged manipulation,” Briones said.
Under the new Section 6 of the bill, the DA Secretary could declare an emergency, which the bill refers to as “a food security emergency under the conditions where there are: shortage in rice supply, sustained increase in rice prices, and extraordinary increase in rice prices.”
For Briones, this could be “problematic,” Business Mirror said.
He worried that non-emergency cases [may be used], but for whatever reason it’s being invoked in order to allow the NFA to import…I find that problematic,” he said.
In the bill, the NFA would only be allowed to import once “all domestic sources have been exhausted” and subject to authorization from the DA Secretary.
“This authority is to be exercised solely in circumstances where domestic supply deficits necessitate such imports to stabilize the national rice supply and maintain the optimal buffer stock,” the bill read.
Other options
Jayson Cainglet, executive director of the Samahang Industriya sa Agrikultura (SINAG), said that other agencies could have been chosen to import rice.
He suggested that an “authority of the President” may be resorted to if there’s a need to import, but let it not be the NFA. “There are agencies that can import instead of the NFA,” Cainglet told Business Mirror.
He said they would rather the agency focus solely on palay procurement for buffer stock instead of selling rice.
The NFA, since it has a budget, procure the palay for buffer stocking; but “it should no longer sell,” he said.
Meanwhile, the palay inventory of NFA jumped fourfold as of May 15 after the NFA Council raised the agency’s palay buying price.
The purchases surged to 2.5 million (50-kilo bags) or 125,000 MT of paddy rice from January 1 to May 15 compared to 538,343 (50 kilo bags) or 26,942 MT for the comparative period in 2023. NFA’s palay purchases as of May 15 accounted for 82.76 percent of its target of 3.08 million 50-kilo bags, or some 150,000 MT, for the period.
“The new price scheme is really the game changer. I think the NFA Council’s strong understanding of NFA’s challenges has resulted in stronger collaboration,” NFA Acting Administrator Larry Lacson said in a statement.
The NFA Council earlier raised the buying price per kilo of palay to P23 to P30 per kilo of clean and dry palay and P17 to P23 for every kilo of wet and fresh palay, which it said allowed the agency to compete with private trades and build its buffer stock.
“We’re still aiming to hit that target since there are other areas like Bulacan where farmers haven’t completed their rice harvest,” Lacson said.
The agency said it needs over P16 billion next year to procure its target volume of rice buffer stock and build additional storage and drying facilities to improve its buffer stocking capacity.
“NFA only has the capacity to dry 31,000 MT but buys around 495,000 MT of palay. NFA is required by law to maintain a buffer stock equivalent to about 9 days of national rice consumption,” it said in a previous statement.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #PIDS #NFA #SINAG #DA