Marcos urges NFA to beef up buffer stock

MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on Thursday said the country has enough rice supply after reports that rice prices may increase by P5 per kilo.

The Department of Agriculture, which the President temporarily heads, earlier said prices of unmilled rice have reached P23 per kilo, higher than the P19 procurement price of the National Food Authority (NFA).

• Philippine rice supply 'alright' Marcos says amid 'reduced' importation

It added that the country's buffer stock is currently at 51 days, lower than the ideal 90 days to keep rice prices stable. The agency attributed this to the low rice imports.

But Marcos said government is looking for ways to maintain the prices of rice in the market.

“Mukha namang maganda ang sitwasyon natin. Hindi tayo magkukulang sa bigas. At tinitingnan natin lahat ng paraan upang ang presyo ay ma-control natin at hindi naman masyadong tataas,” Marcos said in a video statement.

“Magpa-plano kami kung kailangan mag-import, kung kailangan magpahaba, magparami ng buffer stock sa NFA dahil masyado ng mababa," he said.

"‘Yun lang ang nakita naming problema, mababa ‘yung buffer stock ng NFA. Kailangan bumili ‘yung NFA para umabot siya ng at least nine days na buffer stock,” he added.

The Chief Executive said even if the NFA will buy its buffer stock from local producers, the cost of rice will still increase in the market because the agency "will buy a lot."

This is another problem they are looking at, he said. They also need to buy stocks during the production season.

"Siguro ang magagawa natin ay ang pagbili ay hindi bigla. Hindi malaki. ‘Yun lamang, also, you have to remember. This is agriculture, cyclical ito, by season ito," said Marcos.

• Marcos OKs adopting 'hybrid rice' to boost rice production: Palace

The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said the NFA suggested the importation of 330,000 metric tons of rice to "cover an expected deficit in the country’s buffer stock for the relief operations of various agencies in the event of calamities this year."

At present, 790,449.12 metric tons of 3.170 million metric tons (MMT) of planned rice imports for this year already arrived, according to the PCO statement.

It added that based on the NFA's importation strategy, rice imports should be done through government-to-government transactions, with the Office of the President leading this "or its designated agency."

"Given the NFA’s budgetary constraints, the agency expects its buffer stocks will decrease to less than 500,000 sacks by July 2023, which is equivalent to less than a day of public consumption," the Palace statement read.

Based on the Department of Agriculture's rice monitoring in Metro Manila as of Thursday, local commercial rice is being sold between P37 to P58 per kilogram.

• Special (blue tag) - P50 - P58
• Premium (yellow tag) - P43 - P52
• Well-milled (white tag) - P40 - P46
• Regular-milled (white tag) - P37 - P44

Here are the prices of imported commercial rice:

• Special (blue tag) - P48 - P60
• Premium (yellow tag) - P42 - P49
• Well-milled (white tag) - P39 - P46
• Regular-milled (white tag) - P36 - P40

The President had vowed to bring down the rice prices to P20 per kilogram during his election campaign.

The P25 per kilogram rice being sold in Kadiwa outlets, meanwhile, remained limited. It is also being offered only until supplies last, based on ABS-CBN News' monitoring.

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Video from Presidential Communications Office