Food authority assures stable rice supply

NATIONAL Food Authority (NFA)-Negros Occidental assured Negrenses Wednesday that there is nothing to fear about rice supply shortages this year, as the government has already readied measures.

NFA head Pablito Gemarino told Sun.Star Bacolod that the rice supply in the province is meeting the consumption needs of the Negrenses and the agency is seeing no problem along the way.

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But Gemarino said they had already coordinated with the NFA head office in Manila to look into the numbers of tons of rice to be exported from the neighboring rice-producing countries in Southeast Asia for 2010.

Gemarino said forecast for the whole year in rice consumption and distribution to all rice retailers in the province is very important, stressing that the numbers are changing and is beyond the control of nobody.

Last year, NFA reached its target of one million bags of rice distribution in the province, with hundreds of government-initiated rice retailers across Negros Occidental that helped bringing quality and low-price rice.

Also, NFA said there is a big possibility that the government would take rice importation as a solution over the growing rice demands for consumption. This after hundreds of rice fields in Luzon that are vital for rice production was damaged by devastating typhoons last year.

However, the NFA official said that Negrenses have nothing to fear about rice shortage, as the government has already assured that there would be enough rice supply for the Filipinos this year.

Negros Occidental, known as major sugar-producing province, is just one of the provinces in the country that rely on rice importation by the government as there are no enough rice fields in the province today that could somehow address the rice demands on local markets for public consumptions.