CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The National Food Authority (NFA) has announced it is now buying palay for P20.70 per kilo in Central Luzon.
NFA Bulacan assistant manager Ed Camua said the higher price was designed to attract more local farmers to sell their produce to NFA instead of the private sector.
“This is the first time that the NFA has increased its buying price, from P17 per kilo that was the rate since 2008,” he noted.
Camua said that since the increase of buying price, some 800,000 cavans of palay have already been bought by NFA in Bulacan alone, mostly from the towns of San Rafael, San Ildefonso and San Miguel.
He said that apart from the higher buying price, NFA is also offering farmers the use of its palay dryers in its “camaligs.”
NFA also offers free transport of palay from the farms to its drying facilities, he added.
Camua said that the higher buying price is also expected to pave the way for lower price of rice in the markets, even as he noted that rice prices have gone down by as much as P7 in Bulacan markets.
He said the NFA is now filling up its warehouses for the needed rice buff er stocks and ensure the price of rice would remain low and stable.
