EL NIÑO DISPATCH
NFA intensifies palay buying in spite of El Niño
The National Food Authority’s palay procurement has hit a total of 962,655 bags as of the third week of March in spite of the effect of El Nino to the country’s agricultural production.
The NFA bought 489,114 bags of palay in January; 339,543 bags in February and 133,998 bags by the third week of March. The agency is targeting to buy 696,900 bags for April, the peak of summer harvest.
For the same period last year, the NFA was able to buy some 1.2 million bags of palay.
NFA administrator Jessup P. Navarro said with the present tight supply of the commodity, the agency’s active buying in effect pushed competition with traders resulting in a sellers market benefiting the farmers.
Farm level price of palay currently averages P16.82 per kilo. It was P16.07 per kilo during last year’s same period, a difference of P.75 per kilo or P37.50 per cavan of 50 kilograms.
The NFA meanwhile buys clean and dry palay at P17.70 per kilogram inclusive of drying, transport and cooperative development incentives. The grant of these incentives brings the agency’s effective palay buying price to P885 per 50 kg .
According to Navarro, aside from enjoying a high ex-farm price for their produce, farmers at present have the option to either immediately sell their produce or to wait for the price to appreciate further.
Also, those farmers who planted their crop early were able to spared from the ill effects of El Nino and produced clean and dry palay that could command higher price while incurring minimal expenses.
The NFA is buying at a daily average rate of 8,960 bags. Southern Tagalog posted the highest volume of palay procured with 458,570 bags most of these coming from Occidental Mindoro totalling 223,270 bags.
Procurement is also high in the Ilocos Region with 167,893bags mostly from La Union and
NFA’s palay buying is also active in
The NFA has set this year’s palay procurement target at 11.7 million bags.
For more information on NFA programs, please send inquiries via NFA mobile number 0917-6210927. (DA-NFA)
