BACOLOD City – The National Food Authority (NFA) in Negros Occidental is expecting an increase in the volume of palay procurement despite the removal of incentives in its buying price.
Frisco Canoy, NFA-Negros Occidental manager, said over the weekend they have actually monitored an increase in the volume of palay sold to the NFA since buying prices of traders started to drop.
As of Friday, the new buying price of palay (unhusked rice) has been pegged at P19 per kilogram, specifically for clean and dry stocks.
Canoy said from the previous support price of P17 per kilogram, the NFA Council has recommended an additional P2 – making the current buying price at P19 per kilogram.
However, the incentives of up to P3.70 per kilogram have already been removed.
“If the average production cost of local rice farmers is P12 per kilogram, they can still earn P7 per kilogram. With the new buying price, the NFA can cater to more farmers,” he said.
Records showed that since January this year, NFA has already purchased about 3,000 sacks of palay from farmers in Negros Occidental.
Earlier, the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) reported that the average price of palay in the province is P13 to P14 per kilogram, which is lower than P18 to P20 per kilogram before the implementation of the rice tariffication law.
Canoy said NFA buying stations in cities of Bacolod, Bago and San Carlos; and Ilog town cater to farmers selling clean and dry palay.
“We continue to urge our farmers to sell their palay to us,” he added.
In another memorandum from the central office, NFA-Negros Occidental has been directed to implement a new selling price of P27 per kilogram of NFA rice for local government units.
The amount is P10 per kilogram lower than the previous selling price of P37. (With a report from PNA/PN)
