By Erwin Nicavera/PNA
BACOLOD CITY — More than 60,000 bags of rice imported by the National Food Authority (NFA) have already been unloaded at the BREDCO port in this city on Friday.
Marianita Gellecanao, assistant manager of NFA-Negros Occidental, said the volume shows that the unloading is already 60-percent complete.
Gellecanao said that most of the unloaded 60,657 bags are stored in the city’s two warehouses.
The stocks are part of the 100,000 bags of rice from Thailand that arrived in the province via MV Inlaco Express last November 23.
Gellecanao said some 1,500 bags have been transported to the NFA warehouse in San Carlos City in the north while 1,000 bags have been delivered to the warehouse in Ilog town in the south.
NFA-Negros Occidental has projected that under normal weather condition, the unloading can be completed by December 5.
The imported rice stocks that recently arrived comprise the second allocation for the province this year. The first, which totaled 80,000 bags, arrived last July.
Gellecanao said NFA-Negros Occidental may start distributing the new buffer stocks to accredited retail outlets next week.
With the arrival of additional imported stocks, they can also start increasing the distribution to 20 to 50 bags — from the previous 5 to 10 bags only per retail outlet — among major and non-traditional markets, she added.
