DESPITE HIGHER FUEL PRICES

DESPITE increases in fuel prices, NFA rice still remains at P32 per kilo (15% broken) and P27 a kilo (25% broken).

This was assured by Julieta Orias, Assistant Provincial Manager of NFA Western Pangasinan even as she maintained there is enough supply till the end of the year.

She also urged farmers who still have stocks of palay to sell these while the price is at P20 per kilo because the price might be affected once the rice allocation for 2017 is downloaded on January.

As price stabilizer, the NFA is buying palay at P17 per kilo plus 20 centavos delivery fee and coop incentive fee of 30 centavos.

NFA reiterates its invitation to farmers to avail of the Farmers Option to Buyback Program by selling their grains to NFA from a minimum of 500 cavans for storage so they can have cash to buy palay for next planting season.

She said farmers can buy back their grains within six months at the same price plus costs of storage in order to resell these to private traders at higher prices.

Farmers are also encouraged to use NFA’s warehouses and will be allowed to have their own pile with a minimum of 5,000 cavans.

Orias said though there is a bulk of rice production, the government still imports supply to meet the needs of 3 million population in the province.

Presently, there are 124, 000 bags of NFA rice, enough for 10 days and another 100,000 bags of commercial rice and 230, 000 bags of household stocks or a total of 450,000 bags of rice enough until next month.

She said, there was a 5% decrease in rice production this year compared to last years produce because of typhoons Karen and Lawin that hit Pangasinan at the peak of harvesting season.

Orias also pointed out that 14% of harvested palay are lost due to mishandling in threshing and marketing because of the absence of drying facilities.

She said the loss happens when farmers dry their palay by the roadside. (Nora Dominguez)

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