The National Food Authority (NFA) announced on Tuesday that it is studying the impact of halting the rebagging of procured palay (unmilled rice) sourced from local farmers and said that savings can be generated.

NFA acting administrator Larry Lacson said that when they acquire palay, it is transferred to NFA sacks.

Meantime, the DA attached corporation, in a statement, expounded that the palay was repacked to ensure its security using NFA sacks, considering that the farmers’ sacks are thin and tear easily.

“We analyzed [that] if the specifications of the farmers on their sacks are correct, there should be no problem,” Lacson said, adding that they will save money on handling costs as the payment in the industry is “per move.”

As an example, the NFA acting chief said that if each sack costs P13 and there are 10 million sacks, the estimated savings would be about P130 million. Meanwhile, assuming a handling cost of P30 per bag, the agency would save P300 million.

“So that’s totaling to more or less half a billion pesos in savings that NFA can save just by tweaking that particular process. Of course, that is still in the final stage of our study [b]ut we’re really going in that direction,” Lacson said.

Last week, NFA said it exceeded its palay volume target from January to June, achieving 100.06 percent of its palay procurement.

Out of the 3,363,100 bags target, equivalent to 168,155 metric tons (MT) of palay, the NFA has acquired a total of 3,365,245 bags, or 168,262 MT in volume.

Under the NFA’s new Price Range Scheme or PRICERS, the agency buys palay at improved prices, with wet palay at P17 to P23 per kilogram and clean and dry palay at P23 to P30 per kilogram.