THE National Food Authority (NFA) expects P557.3 million in sales revenue this year after the NFA Council chaired by Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. approved last month an increase in the selling price of rice to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and other government agencies.

The agency said in a statement yesterday the selling price was increased to P38 per kg from P25 per kg which will also allow NFA to buy more palay from farmers that would boost the state-run firm’s rice buffer apart from increasing farmers’ income.

“The higher selling price agreed to by the DSWD will help not only reduce NFA losses but also give it additional resources to buy more palay from our farmers,” Tiu Laurel said.

“At a buying price of P28 a kilo of palay, the additional revenue from our sales to DSWD will allow us to buy an additional 400,000 50-kilo bags of palay. That’s easily 12,600 metric tons (MT) of incremental rice supply,” said Larry Lacson, NFA administrator.

Lacson also assured the price increase will not have an impact on the market price of rice.

NFA a net loss of P6.19 billion in 2023 as it pursued its mandate to buy palay from local farmers to build a nine-day buffer stock of about 300,000 MT of rice.

Earlier this year, the NFA Council approved a higher buying price range of P17 to P30 per kg compared to last year’s P16 to P23 per kg to allow the grains agency to compete with private traders of palay, who have driven prices higher due to El Niño and the effect of India’s rice export ban that was only recently lifted.

NFA said the adjustment in the palay procurement price allowed it to buy around 3.5 million 50-kilo bags of palay at the end of the first half of the year, compared to only procuring less than 200,000 bags prior to the price adjustment in June.

For this wet season, NFA plans to buy between 6.4 million to 8.7 million bags of palay.

NFA also sought from the Department of Budget and Management the immediate release of P9 billion in rice procurement funds, increasing its available money to around P11 billion.