Tuesday, April 01, 2008 NFA assures 3-month supply of rice
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The National Food Authority in Central Luzon (NFA) has assured the public of a steady supply of the staple cereal for the next three months.
NFA Central Luzon Director Nicolas Crisostomo reported that the total rice inventory of the government, commercial and household sectors in the region stand at 4.5 million bags which is projected to last for 67 days.
He noted that the current level is 46 percent higher than the inventory of 3.1 million bags last year. The increase is attributable to the rise in government stocks this year.
Crisostomo said from a mere 182,800 bags that the NFA had in their warehouses for the same period last year, the food agency now has 1.5 million bags.
"This is due to the prudent management of stocks during the last quarter of 2007 and the early arrival of our partial imported rice allocation for 2008," he added.
He also said around 2.2 million bags of imported rice will be allocated to Central Luzon this year. Of this volume, 403,000 bags from Vietnam have already arrived at the Subic port via two vessels.
The balance of 1.8 million bags will arrive in the coming months.
Aside from the arrival of imported rice, Crisostomo is confident that the peaking harvest season this summer will boost the region's supply.
He said "the NFA will be aggressively buying palay at the existing support price of P12.00 per kilogram including incentives in order to add up to our buffer stocks in anticipation of the coming lean months in the 3rd quarter."
NFA's stocks are strategically positioned in the seven provinces of the region. To ensure that the P18.25 per kilogram NFA rice will reach its intended consumers, necessary measures were adopted such as the repacking of NFA rice into one kilogram and two kilogram plastic containers and the direct delivery of these stocks to the market.
Crisostomo said he had earlier instructed the managers of the NFA provincial offices in the region to deploy their monitoring and "Palengke Watch" teams.
The function of the monitoring teams is to oversee the grains trading operations in their areas. "We will make sure that NFA rice will be visible and available in all public markets" he said.
Moreover, he reported that they are now in the process of sanitizing and revoking the existing passbooks of all their retailers in response to President Gloria Arroyo's directive to purge the industry of unscrupulous traders.
Aside from the food agency's regular rice distribution operations in public markets, the NFA also prioritizes the provision of rice to outlets under the hunger mitigation program of the government such as the Food for School program, Tindahan Natin, and Tindahan sa Parokya. (ABL)
