Following decision to raise the palay buying price last April, the National Food Authority (NFA) said it was able to boost the quantity of milled rice by 14.6 percent compared to last year’s data.

In a recent NFA council meeting, over 111,720 metric tons have been raised since the middle of May, while the grains agency was able to procure an additional 2.41 million 50-kilo bags of palay within a month since the price increase.

To compare, the NFA only procured a total of 142,244 bags of palay between January and April.

The stocks have been raised due to the NFA’s decision to increase the buying price per kilo last April 11 to compete with private traders and increase the buffer stock.

From P23, clean palay per kilo was procured at P30, dry palay went from P19 to P23, and fresh and wet buying prices went up to a range of P17 to P23.

NFA Acting Administrator Larry Lacsion said that the new price scheme helped enhance the volume of palay, stating that “I think the NFA Council’s strong understanding of NFA’s challenges has resulted in stronger collaboration. We thank Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. and the Council for this.”

From January to May, the agency was able to obtain a total of 2.5 million bags of play. This is at least 82.76 percent of the 3.08 million target for half of the year.

The last time the NFA boosted its buying price was September 2023.

“We’re still aiming to hit that target since there are other areas like Bulacan where farmers haven’t completed their rice harvest,” Lacson said.

“Farmers I spoke to are very happy with this initiative of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to help farmers increase their income.”