Responding to reports that the National Food Authority buffer stock has dwindled, President has ordered the importation of 250,000 metric tons of rice immediately.
According to Secretary to the Cabinet Leoncio Evasco, the president has ordered to activate the standby order to import rice on Wednesday.
“Last night [Feb. 7], I received an oral order, an instruction from the president to buy the standby rice. We will buy 250,000 metric tons,” Evasco said in a television interview.
“We have no option but to follow the President to activate the 250,000 metric tons on standby. That will be on top of the 325,000 [metric tons] that will arrive anytime this month,” he said.
Evasco said that the NFA clearance approves the request of the agency’s management but only after the National Food Security Council certifies that there is indeed a need to increase the rice supply in the country.
“We are so careful in buying so as not to affect the production of local farmers,” Evasco said.
In the Senate, Senator Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, has sought for a Senate investigation into the reported insufficient supply of rice at the National Food Authority.
Villar filed Senate Resolution No. 608, directing the proper committee to investigate the issue. It also called for a review on the role of the agency in ensuring the country’s food security.
She cited the need to look into the supply of NFA rice for the consuming public and NFA in fulfilling its administrative capabilities to respond to the need of the people.
“The present NFA’s mandate to ensure food sufficiency should be looked into for the purpose of rationalizing its functions in the advent of the need to impose tariff on rice importation,” Villar said.
“It should be responsible to respond to natural and artificial shortages of rice or buffer stocking,” she added.
She said the NFA policy-making body determines the rice importation program, including placing caps on imports to ensure fair trade.
NFA spokesperson Rebecca Olarte confirmed that the NFA has temporarily stopped the issuance of NFA rice to accredited retailers due to the low supply. It has requested a permit to import an additional 250,000 metric tons to ensure rice availability.
She said that the NFA’s buffer stock of about 64,000 metric tons at the end of January was at its “lowest monthly holding in 10 years.”
Because of this, Olarte said NFA-accredited rice retailers are not be able to sell NFA rice for the time being because of the prevailing low buffer stock.
The senator recalled that the same thing happened last year, in March and in July, even if the NFA is required to keep a 15-day buffer stock at any given time.
In June 2017, the Philippines’ quantitative restriction on rice expired. The QR allows the government to limit the volume of rice that could be imported each year.
With the expiration, the government is moving towards the tariff system. Villar said local rice producers are expected to suffer from the “adverse effects of cheap rice imports.”
“The NFA should be responsible to respond to natural and artificial shortages of rice or buffer stocking,” she said.
Meanwhile, Senator Nancy Binay called on the Department of Agriculture, NFA and the National Food Authority Council to settle their differences and come up with a plan to augment the dwindling supply of NFA rice.
Binay said she does not dispute Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol’s claim that there is “a huge inventory of locally harvested rice.” However, she argued that the rice varieties available in the market are more expensive than NFA rice.
The NFA sells rice between P27 and P32 per kilo which is lower than commercial prices of P45 to P60 per kilo.
Binay said the Grains Retailers Confederation in North Cotabato is already complaining of limited stocks of NFA rice.
Grecon Cotabato President Carmelito Bacus said each accredited NFA rice retailer is only given five sacks of NFA rice monthly.
As of Monday, the NFA only had 65,200 metric tons of NFA rice, which would last for 2 days. The agency is required to have a 15-day buffer stock at any given time.
Binay said that she understands the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) position to look for alternative means to address the lack of supply of NFA rice.
She also appealed to commercial traders not to take advantage of the situation and instead help keep rice prices stable.
