THE National Food Authority (NFA) has procured almost half of its 2024 palay (unmilled rice) target for the year with additional purchases to be made during the wet season harvest.

During a warehouse inspection on Friday, NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said that they were targeting to buy 495,000 metric tons (MT) of palay this year and aiming to attain 60-percent procurement for this year during the wet season.

The NFA chief added that their starting rice stocks inventory was low at 145,000 bags when 2024 started, but was now at around 3.4 million bags.

"We are confident that going into the wet season, we can purchase the requirements for the year," he said.

For the agency's target procurement of 3.08 million bags (50 kilos each) of palay in the January to June period, Lacson said they had achieved 98 percent of their adjusted goal and were likely to surpass it.

"As you can see, there are still crops to be harvested in the fields. We are trying to hit our target 100 percent or even higher than that," he said.

Lacson added that buffer stocks were enough with milled rice stock inventory at 136,000 MT or 136 million kilograms. Also, the Department of Social Welfare and Development continuously prepositions rice from the NFA for future relief operations.

"The whole Philippines is not always hit by typhoons; that's more than enough, aside from the stocks in our households," he said.

Lacson assured farmers that they would not be affected by the National Economic Development Authority's decision to slash duties on imported rice to 15 percent from 35 percent.

"Our pricing is totally independent of the tariff that is not our mandate. We will buy at a price profitable to the farmers to fulfill our buffer stock," the NFA chief said.

Lacson also said that they were preparing for the upcoming La Niña and other calamities, and that the NFA has a total procurement budget this year amounting to P17 billion, with P5 billion already used.

For the next year, NFA is proposing around P45 billion to fund procurement and other projects. Lacson said that P16.305 billion would be allocated for palay purchases and P5 billion for postharvest operations, among others.