CV to get additional rice imports by Sept

Central Visayas will get additional rice imports in time for the lean season through September, according to the National Food Authority.

"Yes we are expecting another rice imports," NFA-7 information officer Olma Marie Bayno told The FREEMAN yesterday.

"In fact, five suppliers from Thailand and Singapore were already awarded the contract to supply a total of another 250,000 metric tons (MT) of 25 percent broken, well-milled long grain white rice for NFA under the open tender bidding held last May 22, 2018," she said.

The fresh imports, she said, will form part of NFA’s food security stocks during the lean months of July to September.

Currently NFA is unloading the 25,000MT rice imports or a total of 500,000 bags as its allocation in the latest rice supply the government procured from Vietnam and Thailand.

Three vessels have already arrived in Cebu International Port since June 17 and NFA has since unloaded a total of 223,360 bags of rice.

The agency is yet to unload the remaining 276,500 bags from the Cebu port to be housed in its warehouses across the region.

NFA has close to 1,900 accredited retailers in Central Visayas.

"But as of the moment, we are conducting a revalidation or re-accreditation of all our retailers. Meantime, we cannot as yet determine the number of active and existing accredited retailers," Bayno said.

NFA-7 is also yet to identify how much it will allocate for Grains Retailers Confederation of the Philippines (GRECON) rice retailers.

"We still have to wait for the unloading of three vessels to be completed. We observe strictly compliance to order of priority in our rice distribution which includes DSWD, NDRRMC/ OCD, LGUs, governors and legislators, other reliefgiving institutions NFA accredited retailers," she said.

NFA rice sold in accredited stores in public markets are sold at P32 per kilo and only at a maximum of five kilos per purchase.

The NFA has assured the public of making rice available and affordable to the country's low-income consumers.

The agency is mandated to ensure food security and stabilization of supply and price of the country's basic staple.

There had been great spikes in the prices of fuel and other basic goods before, but having enough supply of affordable NFA rice has always cushioned the poor's hunger and economic difficulty."

While some wanted NFA rice to be taken away from the market and let private traders dictate the supply and price of rice (thus against government importation policy), NFA insisted its mandate. —