AN OFFICIAL of the National Food Authority (NFA)-Northern Mindanao on Tuesday, April 3, acknowledged that the amount of government-subsidized rice across the region is getting scarce, this after reports came out that rice reserves of the NFA nationwide is running out.
NFA-Northern Mindanao director Fernando Nuñez said there is still a distribution of NFA rice especially in Camiguin and Cagayan de Oro City, but its buffer stock is no longer sufficient.
"Very limited na gyud kaayo. Naa pa ta stock especially in Camiguin and for CDO pero gamay na lang gyud kaayo and more on DSWD stocks na (The stock is now very limited. We still have stocks especially in Camiguin and Cagayan de Oro but it is running out. What is left is the stocks of the DSWD)," Nuñez said.
Nuñez refused to elaborate, saying the NFA council has been tasked to answer queries about the rice situation.
Lawyer Edgardo Uy, chairman of Cagayan de Oro City Price Coordinating Council (CPCC), said the government-subsidized rice in the market has been very minimal based on their recent monitoring.
"Nihit na gyud kaayo ang NFA sa mga retailers. Atong nag-coordinate mi sa NFA naa pay semana nga makita ang NFA rice pero karon lately maglisod na ka og pangita (NFA rice is becoming scarce among retailers. It is now becoming difficult to find retailers still selling NFA rice),"Uy said.
Uy said the CPCC had a coordination meeting with the NFA-10 officials last February 12, which was followed by warehouse inspection on February 21.
He said NFA-Northern Mindanao officials told them that the inventory of NFA rice stock has significantly dropped and that it may last only for about four days.
But Uy said there is sufficient supply of commercial rice and said the region still has about 2 months supply.
Uy assured that they will hold another meeting and inspection together with the NFA-Northern Mindanao officials to check whether NFA rice in the market has been totally wiped out.
In their latest monitoring, the price of NFA rice in the market is pegged at P32 per kilo.
"Posible nga wala na gyud karon ug isa na sa atong tan-awon kay daghan pa gihapon gapangita sa NFA rice kay maayo na ang klase sa NFA rice kumpara kaniadto (Its possible that there is no more NFA rice and this is what we are going to look into because there are still those who look for NFA rice because its quality now is better compared before),"Uy said.
"Kung walay NFA rice naa man tay commercial pero ang issue is price napud ug delikado nga kini mosaka kay wala namay mobalanse (We still have commercial rice though but the another issue is price and its a concern if its price will rise),"Uy added.