LEGAZPI CITY — More than 90,000 bags of imported rice are available for distribution to various National Food Authority (NFA) accredited outlets in Bicol, the agency’s spokesperson here said on Thursday.
Nelsie Alcantara, in an interview, said the current rice inventory indicates that the NFA’s buffer stock of 95,588 rice could sustain the region’s rice consumption requirements for 10 days.
The buffer stocks would be bolstered as soon as the 164,000 bags of imported rice from Thailand would be completely unloaded this Sunday, she said.
“The ongoing unloading should have been completed but was hampered due to bad weather condition prevailing during the past days,” Alcantara said.
Meanwhile, the Regional Task Force, created in September to monitor the supply, accessibility and prices of rice in the market, reported that it has not encountered any case of rice hoarding, diversion or price manipulation among the trading outlets it has inspected and inventoried last week.
The task force is composed of representatives from the Philippine National Police, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department of Justice.
Alcantara said at least 39 big rice trading outlets in Bicol were inspected and inventoried. NFA has 2,210 accredited rice outlets in Bicol.
NFA is selling the imported rice at PHP32.00 per kilogram, while the agency has allowed consumers to buy a maximum of 20 kilos a day from accredited NFA outlets.
Commercial rice in Albay is being sold at PHP42 per kilo for regular milled rice, PHP43 to PHP45 per kilo for well-milled rice. (Mar Serrano/PNA)
