“There would be no reason for rice farmers to sell their palay to the NFA given the discrepancy,” Balayon said. ADVERTISEMENTShe said that while the NFA wanted to buy from local rice farmers, the current NFA pricing was uncompetitive. “We cannot compete with rice traders’ buying price,” she told the Inquirer. Increasing the NFA’s buying price has to go through a process and has to be approved by the NFA Council. But NFA Administrator Jason Aquino, in a previous interview, said raising the buying price of the NFA by even just a centavo was not easy.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer March 09, 2018 21:56 UTC