Tabuk City, Kalinga - With the price of dry palay now at P15.00 per kilo from as high as P18.50 two weeks ago and threatening to sink even lower, the National Food Authority (NFA) here has some to the rescue of local farmers. At least for the moment.
Assistant Provincial Manager Enrique Baliang said that starting April 23, they are buying at the price ordered by Malacanang which is P17.00 per kilo for clean and dry palay.
Baliang also said that this time, they are relaxing the purchasing regulations of the NFA. Farmers with passbooks could sell 100 bags per hectare of their registered landholding and more importantly, walk-in farmers with no passbooks could sell 50 bags each.
Baliang said that they have received an initial purchasing fund of P5M and that the same will be replenished when exhausted but the problem, according to him, is the P17.00 support price is only good until the end of May.
"We do not know what will happen after the end of May. The danger then is the private traders might exploit the situation when we are no longer able to buy at P17.00," Baliang admitted.
Baliang admitted this is the first time in a long time they are buying even as he admitted that in the specific case of Kalinga, they have badly fallen short of the mandate of the charter of the agency to purchase 10 percent of the rice harvest. "It was only in 1979 when we hit the target but after that, it was good if we were able to buy five percent of the harvest," Baliang said.
Regarding the rice stocks of the provincial NFA, Baliang said that they are giving allocations of five bags a week for each of their 67 outlets and that with more NFA rice supplies arriving in the province, the share of each outlet might be increased to 10 bags a week by the end of April.
As of press time, with only a few of the local traders buying, the price of fresh palay in the market here is down to P12.00 - P13.00 per kilo from the unprecedented P17.00 per kilo two weeks ago.
Daryl Estranero of the Universal Grains Center in Bulanao Norte, this city, who is buying only dry palay at the price of P15.00 per kilo as of press time is apprehensive that the prices will continue to go down until it reaches the normal level which, according to him, is P9.40 to P9.70 for fresh and P12.00 for dry. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
Assistant Provincial Manager Enrique Baliang said that starting April 23, they are buying at the price ordered by Malacanang which is P17.00 per kilo for clean and dry palay.
Baliang also said that this time, they are relaxing the purchasing regulations of the NFA. Farmers with passbooks could sell 100 bags per hectare of their registered landholding and more importantly, walk-in farmers with no passbooks could sell 50 bags each.
Baliang said that they have received an initial purchasing fund of P5M and that the same will be replenished when exhausted but the problem, according to him, is the P17.00 support price is only good until the end of May.
"We do not know what will happen after the end of May. The danger then is the private traders might exploit the situation when we are no longer able to buy at P17.00," Baliang admitted.
Baliang admitted this is the first time in a long time they are buying even as he admitted that in the specific case of Kalinga, they have badly fallen short of the mandate of the charter of the agency to purchase 10 percent of the rice harvest. "It was only in 1979 when we hit the target but after that, it was good if we were able to buy five percent of the harvest," Baliang said.
Regarding the rice stocks of the provincial NFA, Baliang said that they are giving allocations of five bags a week for each of their 67 outlets and that with more NFA rice supplies arriving in the province, the share of each outlet might be increased to 10 bags a week by the end of April.
As of press time, with only a few of the local traders buying, the price of fresh palay in the market here is down to P12.00 - P13.00 per kilo from the unprecedented P17.00 per kilo two weeks ago.
Daryl Estranero of the Universal Grains Center in Bulanao Norte, this city, who is buying only dry palay at the price of P15.00 per kilo as of press time is apprehensive that the prices will continue to go down until it reaches the normal level which, according to him, is P9.40 to P9.70 for fresh and P12.00 for dry. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
No comments:
Post a Comment