The National Food Authority (NFA) on Wednesday said it could gain PHP557.3 million in additional revenue with the implementation of a higher selling price.

This came after the NFA Council approved the increase in the selling price of NFA rice to PHP38 per kilogram, from the previous PHP25/kg, to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“The higher selling price agreed to by the DSWD will help not only reduce NFA losses but also give it additional resources to buy more palay from our farmers,” DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a statement.

NFA Administrator Larry Lacson, meanwhile, thanked the DSWD for its support for the NFA’s rice price adjustments.

“The additional revenue from our sales to DSWD will allow us to buy an additional 400,000 50-kilo bags of palay, equivalent to 12,600 metric tons of rice,” he said.

For the wet harvest season, the NFA aims to buy around 6.4 million to 8.7 million bags of palay.

Earlier, it had secured around 3.5 million 50-kg bags of palay from the dry harvest season in June with its higher pricing scheme.

The NFA’s higher buying price range is set at PHP17 to PHP23 per kilogram for fresh or wet palay; and PHP23 to PHP30/kg for clean and dry palay. (PNA)