BACOLOD CITY — The National Food Authority (NFA) in Negros Occidental is expecting the arrival of additional 130,000 bags of imported rice in September.
NFA provincial manager Frisco Canoy confirmed the latest allocation on Monday afternoon, saying it is part of the 250,000 metric tons of rice coming into the country next month.
However, the specific source of the rice shipment for the province, which is about 6.5 metric tons, has not been determined yet.
“We won’t know until a vessel is assigned. Since it is government-to-private importation, the source is from the different countries who will join the bid,” Canoy said.
For this year, Negros Occidental received an initial allocation of 80,000 bags from Thailand in July.
Canoy said they have already distributed about 60 percent of the stocks to accredited rice retailers.
Last week, NFA-Negros Occidental shipped an augmentation of about 5,000 bags to Antique, which declared a state of calamity, he added.
Moreover, Canoy said in Negros Occidental, each retailer is given 35 bags for the week.
“They need to sell five bags daily to make the stocks last for seven days, but what is happening now is, retailers can sell five bags in just two to three hours,” he said.
NFA rice is sold at PHP27 per kilogram in the province.
“Consumers are really falling in line to buy NFA rice with quality like that of PHP45 per kilogram commercial rice,” Canoy said.
The NFA guidelines allow each consumer to buy a maximum of five kilograms of rice per day, but with brisk sales, retailers have reduced the allowable purchase to only two or three kilograms, he added. (Erwin Nicavera/PNA)
