NFA hit for ‘excessive’ rice importation

MANILA, Philippines - The National Food Authority (NFA) is under fire for the “excessive importation” of 2.1 million metric tons of rice for this year.

As of June 1, the country had a total rice stock inventory of 3.02 million metric tons, Bayan Muna Representatives Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate quoted the Department of Agriculture (DA) as saying.

Data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics show that the June inventory was 30.9 percent higher than the 2.31 metric tons the nation had in June last year, they added.

Despite the higher level of stocks, the NFA imported or authorized the importation of 2.1 million metric tons for this year, Colmenares said.

The 2.1-million metric ton importation includes 500,000 MT the NFA procured from Thailand and Vietnam – 250,000 MT programmed for the lean season, 250,000 MT as reserve volume, 300,000 MT delivery under last year’s minimum access volume (MAV), and 805,200 MT private sector imports from China, India, Pakistan, Australia, El Salvador, Thailand, and Vietnam, he added.

Given the rice self-sufficiency figures from the DA,  the approval and excessive importation of a total of 2.1 million MT in rice imports for 2015 is highly irregular and doubtful, Colmenares said.

 “Even NFA has admitted that the importation would cause the farm-gate price of palay to go down from its current price of P17 per kilo,” he said.

Zarate said the Aquino administration is doing what the Arroyo administration had done.

Aquino criticized his predecessor in his previous State of the Nation Address speeches for over-importing rice, especially during election time. 

And yet, his administration is importing more rice at a time when the next elections are just around the corner, Zarate added.

Aquino has not kept his promise to go after NFA officials and other persons behind the over-importation of rice during the Arroyo administration, he said.