The National Food Authority (NFA) is seeking about P3 billion in additional funds to rent private warehouses and buy more unmilled rice following the damage caused by recent typhoons.
NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said Malacañang is expected to issue an executive order ‘soon’ that will authorize the release of the budget under emergency procurement.
‘We already discussed this with the Department of Agriculture last week.it’s now in Malacañang. I think they’re polishing it.It’s not within the year. It’s the soonest possible time,’ Lacson told reporters on Tuesday.
He said NFA warehouses are already ‘almost full,’ making it difficult to expand procurement without additional government support.
‘Right now, to be honest, we don’t have funds for renting warehouses because the NFA as a [government-owned or -controlled corporation] relies only on rice sales to cover expenses. And our expenses are bigger than the money coming in.’
Lacson said the situation has been compounded by recent storms that left some NFA facilities with minor damage. In Masbate, one warehouse had its doors blown off, while several warehouses in Region 8 reported leaks.
The NFA compound in Occidental Mindoro was also flooded, although no significant stock losses were recorded.
He described these as ‘minor repairs,’ but noted they added pressure to free up storage space for new procurement
To address this, NFA has instructed its field officers to identify private warehouses in every region that can be rented.
In 2024, the agency reported 288 warehouses nationwide, 136 of which underwent repairs earlier this year.
Palay purchases
With the new order, Lacson also said the NFA’s procurement of wet season palay could rise by 8 percent, higher than the 5 percent it usually manages under regular conditions.
He noted, however, that the impact on traders’ prices will be limited-‘probably in some areas’ and only ‘spot by spot.’
Still, he said ‘at least with the additional 3 percent, more farmers will benefit than if there was no intervention.’
The mandate will also allow NFA to purchase storm-damaged palay, which farmers often cannot sell.
Lacson said, however, that the agency would still prefer to buy dry palay since the agency lacks drying facilities.
NFA currently buys dry palay at P23 per kilo and wet palay at P17 per kilo, although prices can change depending on market conditions.
He assured farmers that the agency will not buy palay at single-digit prices.
‘That will not happen. The national government, the NFA in particular, will not do that. Because we would like to really help our farmers that are in distress right now. Their situation is already very difficult. We will not buy at a single-digit price per kilo, definitely not.’
Floor price
Lacson added that there is also a ‘good chance’ the executive order will include the establishment of a floor price for palay, in line with President Marcos’ directive to prevent traders from taking advantage of farmers during harvest season.
The floor price will be set per province to reflect differences in local costs.
‘The DA has already directed its regional field offices to compute the local production cost. Because each province has a different production cost. So that’s the first step-to determine the production cost of every area. And then we can set, from that production cost, what would be the acceptable floor price so our farmers won’t incur losses.’