Rice prices to remain stable, says NFA

MANILA, Philippines -- National Food Authority Administrator Jessup P. Navarro said Saturday he expected rice prices to remain stable and that his agency was ready to flood the market with NFA stock to curb any unusual spike in the prices of "commercial rice."

"We can infuse rice (into the market) wherever and whenever necessary just to make sure the ordinary consumer will have access to good quality, affordable rice," Navarro said.

NFA's commercial grade rice remains at P25 per kilogram. NFA is also selling its higher-end varieties at P28 per kilogram for the 15 percent brokens and P32 per kilogram for 5 percent brokens.

The P18.25 per kilogram rice is available only at "Tindahan Natin" rice outlets. It is sold exclusively to families with a Family Access Card issued by the Department of Social Welfare and Development or included in the Rice Allocation Ledger in the provinces.

Navarro also reacted to reports about an increase in the price of commercial rice. He said it is a normal market reaction at the end of harvest, aggravated by the reported damage wrought by the recent typhoons that visited the country.

"With the summer harvest now ending, the traders are competing and paying more for whatever is left, thereby pushing up palay ex-farm prices that translate to higher rice prices. The two recent typhoons, Dante and Emong, also made it hard to dry and transport palay. Thus the rice traders are expected to include the additional expenses incurred in drying and transporting," Navarro explained.

Navarro noted that the agency's inventory of rice continues to increase with the continuous arrival of rice and the intensive local procurement from the summer palay harvest.

The agency's rice inventory as of the first week of May stood at 1.095 million tons, he said.

This amount can sustain all of the country's rice requirement for 31 days if necessary. This is based on the country's daily requirement of 35,000 metric tons.

Navarro said that intensive palay procurement during last year's main harvest and during the summer crop beefed up the NFA's rice inventory.

He said the NFA continues to improve its grains inventory, having learned from last year's rice supply problems.

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