THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Wednesday that the National Food Authority (NFA) was expanding its warehouse capacity in Tarlac to buy more palay (unmilled rice) from farmers.
The NFA is leasing 1,782 square meters of warehouse space from SL Agritech Corp. in Barangay Masalasa, Victoria, Tarlac, adding storage for approximately 100,000 bags of palay.The facility is targeted for occupancy beginning Oct. 1.“We want the NFA to have the capacity to absorb more of the harvest while ensuring that farmers have a ready market for their produce,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said.NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said: “With the additional rented warehouses and the space, we freed from our storage facilities by clearing our existing inventory, we are looking at buying as much as 500,000 metric tons of palay.”The additional procurement capacity will support the government’s Benteng Bigas, Meron Na! program by providing more locally sourced rice that can eventually be milled and sold through the government’s subsidized rice channels.SL Agritech, part of the Sterling Paper Group, operates a 10,000-metric-ton rice mill and three production hubs.The proposed SL Agritech lease will also serve an estimated 874 farmers in Victoria and nearby municipalities.Currently, NFA’s absorption rate in Tarlac is only 4.30 percent, highlighting the potential impact of additional storage capacity.The warehouse forms part of a 3,382-square-meter facility with an effective capacity of about 166,000 bags.It has a rice mill, five mechanical dryers, a conveyor and truck scale, allowing palay to be received, dried and stored within the same site.