Sunday, April 13, 2008 275,000 bags of rice for CL arrive at Subic Freeport
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- A vessel carrying 395,000 bags of rice from Vietnam has arrived at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales.
Of the total cargo, 275,000 bags will be shipped to National Food Authority (NFA) warehouses in Central Luzon, according to the agency's regional director Nicolas Crisostomo.
The 395,000 bags of rice arrived at the Subic port last April 8 on board MV Morning Star from Vietnam.
The shipment is part of the total 1,828,186 for the NFA stockpiling for Central Luzon, Cagayan Valley and Cordillera.
Last week, the NFA official said around 2.2 million bags of imported rice will be allocated to Central Luzon this year.
Of this volume, he said, 403,000 bags from Vietnam have already arrived at the Subic port via two vessels and that the balance of 1.8 million bags will arrive in the coming months.
Crisostomo, together with NFA Zambales provincial manager Jaime Juan, inspected rice being unloaded from the MV Morning Star to assure that the quality of the staple remains intact until they reach the NFA warehouses.
The new shipment brings to a total 1,568,186 bags the intended NFA stock of imported rice for Central Luzon. This is on top of the commercial rice stock and those grains that are in households.
As of March 31 last year, the whole region only had 3,003,518 bags of rice that would last for only 46 days. For the same period this year the total rice inventory for Central Luzon is at 4,548,666 bags and could last up to 65 days.
Crisostomo said the rice stock sufficiency in the region belies claims of crisis on the staple.
He explained that while last year's imported rice was only at 1.8 million metric tons, the NFA will be importing 2.1 million metric tons (MT) this year.
In addition, the country is expecting a 17.32 million MT of locally produced rice this year as compared to only 16.24 million MT in 2007 or a 6.6 percent increase in local production.
"How can we call it a crisis when, compared with the same period last year, we have a bigger volume in terms of imported and locally-produced rice?" Crisostomo said.
He said the new rice supply that has arrived in the country will further strengthen the food supply in preparation for the "lean months." (ABL)
