Saturday, February 09, 2008 6 metric tons Vietnam rice set to arrive
AN OFFICIAL of the National Food Authority (NFA) announced that a total of 120,000 bags or six metric tons of imported rice are arriving Saturday in this city.
NFA Provincial Manager Jul Akmad Lawama said the rice loaded on a foreign cargo vessel came directly from Vietnam.
The six metric tons is the second importation of rice by the NFA for this year.
The first was the 3.6 metric tons or 73,000 bags of 50 kilos each of iron fortified rice (IFR) that arrive last month also from Vietnam.
Lawama said some of the rice shipment will be distributed to the different provinces in the region including the nearby autonomous region provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.
NFA rice is now slowly becoming in demand since it is of good quality and sold at a cheaper price, according to Lawama.
He said the NFA is sending personnel to the importing country to check if the rice to be shipped are newly harvested and well milled.
The loading of the rice to be shipped is also monitored by the NFA personnel from the warehouse up to the port of origin, Lawama said. (Bong Garcia)
