NATIONAL Food Authority (NFA) Negros Occidental Administrator Pablito Gemarino assured the public that there are no rotten stocks of rice in the NFA warehouse.
In fact, majority of the stocks are new as they were imported by the government only this year. On few stocks from the 2009 importations are left at the warehouse, Gemarino said.
The NFA provincial office requested for one million bags this year and about 900,000 bags had already arrived, he added.
Last week, a 72,000-bag shipment from Vietnam arrived at Bredco port. The imported rice stocks are distributed to the accredited rice dealers all over the province.
Considering that Negros Occidental has always been a rice-deficit province, Gemarino said his office always makes sure that the province has buffer stocks of rice.
Aside from the imported rice from other countries, he said they also get rice stocks from other rice-producing provinces such as Capiz and Iloilo.
“Our local produce composes only 70 percent of our total consumption which is 9 million bags,” Gemarino said. (Teresa Ellera-Dulla)