THE Department of Agriculture has clarified that National Food Authority stocks are not at alarming levels, considering the buffer stock at 300,000 to 350,000 metric tons at any given time.
For her part, DA Undersecretary Mercedita Sombilla for Policy, Planning and Regulation said that, “it would be faulty to compute NFA buffer stocks on the basis of the average national daily consumption of 37,362 MT since NFA stocks are now limited to emergency relief and for the requirements of the Department of Social Welfare and Development [DSWD].”
“However, the actual buffer stock of NFA now is only 53,060 MT. We indeed need to increase this level,” Sombilla said.