By Mary Judaline Partlow (PNA)
DUMAGUETE CITY – The price of government rice being sold in the market by grains retailers dropped to PHP27 per kilo from the previous PHP32, said Hilaria Ganzon, provincial manager of the National Food Authority (NFA) in Negros Oriental.
Ganzon, in an interview on Monday, said the price adjustment is attributed to the new shipment of imported rice, this time from Thailand, as opposed to the previous shipments from Vietnam, which were fully disposed of last week.
Also, the current available NFA rice is 25 percent broken grains, compared to the previous stocks which grains were broken from 15 to 20 percent only, Ganzon said.
She assured that government rice is still of good quality, does not have bugs, and does not cause an upset stomach.
Currently, the province has a rice buffer stock of fewer than 20,000 bags, which Ganzon said is enough to last for about two to three weeks.
The NFA provincial head also assured that they are awaiting another shipment of imported rice of about 33,000 bags next week.
For grains retailers who had previously purchased the Vietnam rice, they will sell these at PHP32 a kilo, Ganzon said.
She also announced they are no longer selling retail rice at their warehouse in Dumaguete unlike in the past where people could avail of at least one sack per individual.
However, their “Bigasan ng Bayan” outlet at the NFA provincial compound here continues every Wednesday, where people can buy government rice for a maximum of five kilograms each, she said.
