NFA assures stable rice supply as lean months starts

July 16, 2010

MANILA – National Food Authority administrator Angelito T. Banayo on Thursday assured the country of a stable rice supply as the lean months sets in. Banayo cited NFA’s in-tensive palay (grain) buying activities during the summer harvest as among the factors that contributed in attaining supply stability. The lean months, from July to September, are the period when farmers grow palay with yields at its lowest. As of the first week of July, the NFA, he said, had some 40.7 million bags of rice, or equivalent to two million metric tons (MMT), which were sufficient for the next 10 months requirements based on the agency’s average daily rice sales of 110,355 bags.

NFA’s rice inventory is also capable of sustaining the country’s food security rice requirement for 56 days based on the country’s daily requirement of 36,300 metric tons (MT). “NFA stock inventory at present is almost double the required 30-day food security buffer at the start of lean months,” according to Banayo.