NFA stops leftover rice auction, mulls imports

State-run National Food Authority on Thursday said it has stopped the bidding for old rice stocks leftover from last year’s importation to avoid distorting market prices of the dry season harvest, even as the grains agency is considering new imports to ensure supply of the staple through the lean months.

In a statement, NFA Administrator Renan Dalisay said that sale through auction of the remaining rice, amounting to about three percent of last year’s imported volume, may distort farmgate prices of locally produced palay.