NFA launches ‘Oplan Paghahanda’ to ensure adequate rice supply

The National Food Authority (NFA) is launching "Oplan Paghahanda," to ensure that key urban areas such as Metro Manila and other non-rice producing areas in the country will have sufficient rice supply and prices are kept stable in the event that the tension in the Middle East erupts into a full-blown war.

NFA Administrator Arthur Yap said the project is part of the so-called Red Alert Protocol of the state-run grains trading agency which is reactivated in times of crisis and is ocassionally modified to suit or adjust to existing conditions.

"We are right now preparing for any eventuality, especially if the US-Iraq conflict evolves into a full-scale war. What we have been doing so far is to mobilize our resources nationwide to ensure that we have enough stocks in our warehouse so that we could intervene in the market if necessary," said Yap.

Yap said he has ordered NFA regional directors to beef up rice stocks in Metro Manila, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and other key urban areas in the country.

"These areas are usually the most vulnerable when there are crises because their stocks come from suppliers from the major-rice producing areas," said Yap.

The NFA’s stocks are just enough for 30 days, but Yap said that commercial and household inventory combined should be good for another 60 days.

Yap said that if a war breaks out and goes beyond 30 days, NFA will have to consider importing more rice to ensure the country has enough supply of the staple.

He said that during abnormal times or during the lean months for rice supply, NFA’s injection rate in the market is no more that five to eight percent of total production. But in the event of a major crisis such as in 1998 when the country’s major rice-producing areas were devastated by the El Niño weather disturbance, NFA increased its injection rate by 35 percent.

"In fact, we can raise this further, but the question is whether we will have enough, especially if the war goes beyond a month, that’s why decisions to be made will have to consider such possibility," Yap said.

While there are stocks held by commercial rice traders and households, Yap said the NFA wants to be able to intervene more effectively in the market to ensure that rice prices remain stable.