ILOILO CITY — The National Food Authority (NFA) here assured Ilonggos of sufficient buffer stocks until the end of the year.
In an interview on Monday, NFA Iloilo provincial manager Oliver L. Cambas said that as of end of October, they have procured 16,082 bags of palay from farmers in the province. That’s a surplus when compared with their October target of only 6,000 bags of palay.
For the remaining two months of the year, they looked forward to procure additional 20,000 bags per month.
Cambas said the procurement was done through their warehouses in Jaro district, San Dionisio, Pototan, Dumangas and Guimaras.
He added they will be establishing buying stations established in municipalities of Lemery, Passi City, San Joaquin and Anilao. “These are areas where our farmers are about to harvest their palay,” he said.
In addition to procurement, NFA still has in its warehouse 26,000 bags of imported rice that arrived in Iloilo only last month.
Also the grains authority is expecting an additional 100,000 bags of imported rice arriving via Cebu either last week of this month or early December.
“When it comes to buffer stocks we are sufficient for the year,” he said, as he revealed that the daily consumption requirement (DCR) of Iloilo is 19, 000 bags.
Meantime, he said that the PHP3 additional rate given by NFA has made an impact on the buying price of traders which also ranges from PHP19 to PHP20 a kilo. He added though that they need not be complacent because of the slight difference in their buying price, thus they need to “campaign more”.
NFA last Oct. 19 launched the PHP3 per kilogram buffer stocking incentives (BSI) under its palay procurement program in Western Visayas.
Under the BSI, the NFA give an additional incentive of PHP3 per kilogram on top of the PHP17 per kilo buying price. (Perla Lena/PNA)
