NATIONAL Food Authority (NFA) Provincial Manager Rolando Rufo said there is no reason to panic on reports of a rice price hike and a rice shortage.
"Sufficient talaga yung rice natin, hindi nauubos," Rufo said.
Rufo said there is enough of the staple to last 48.72 days.
He said that as of the moment, there are 60,355 government rice, 36,593 bags of commercial, and 277,973 household stock.
In addition to this, there is an expected production output of 76,934 bags of rice, which brings the total supply to 451,855 bags.
Rufo said after the month of January, there will still be 279,655 bags of rice in government warehouses.
The 48.72 days for the rice supply to last were computed based on the monthly consumption of 172,200 bags.
Last 2009, NFA dispersed 372,000 bags of rice in the city. Rufo said the agency was not able to distribute the targeted 100 percent last year, which is a good sign there were lots of commercial and household stocks floated in the market.
However, Rufo said the government has expected the shortage in rice supply in the national level and imported the staple.
On the issue of price increase, Rufo said this is just normal as businessmen tend to raise their prices because of the lean or off harvest season.
"Cycle kasi ito, eh off harvest ngayon kaya pagkakataon ng traders na magtaas ng presyo," Rufo said.
Rufo assured rice prices will be stable by March when the harvest season begins.