PRICES of commercial rice may eventually drop once the government-procured imported rice will arrive next month, an official of the National Food Authority (NFA)-Northern Mindanao said Thursday, May 24.
NFA-Northern Mindanao assistant regional chief Gil Tabor said they will then resume supplying government-subsidized rice once the 250,000 metric tons of imported rice will arrive in the second week of June.
The NFA rice reserve was depleted and the supply to its retailers ran out for the last two months.
Only government agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and some local government units were able to receive the supply as part of the NFA's mandate.
"Naa nay moabot karong mga 2nd week sa June nga 250,000 metric tons gikan sa (250,000 metric tons of rice will arrive in the second week of June from) Vietnam and Thailand. Ang Cagayan de Oro is one of the load port," Tabor said.
He said the allocation for Northern Mindanao is about 300,000 bags including the allocation for the war-stricken Marawi City.
The allocation will be divided among the five provinces in the region. Cagayan de Oro will receive a share of some 100,000 bags which will also be distributed to their accredited retailers especially in remote communities.
Tabor said once the new NFA rice stocks arrive, prices of commercial rice will eventually go down.
This after the NFA-Northern Mindanao confirms that traders imposed an increase of about P3 to P4 in commercial rice.
"For the last 2 months nga nag-declare ang NFA nga depleted na gyud didto nagsugod og taas. Ang increase is naa sa P2 to P3 the most is P4 depende sa variety (since NFA declared the depletion of NFA rice, that’s when the price increase started. It increased for about P2 to P3, the most is P4, it depends on the variety)," Tabor said.
Tabor said while the incoming NFA rice reserves are sufficient to serve the public, he also assured that they are of the best quality.
The NFA-Northern Mindanao official reiterated that only government-subsidized rice had gotten scarce but the rice supply as a whole remains stable.
"There was no rice crisis, the only crisis and problem was the price not the supply. Kay kung walay NFA rice merkado motaas ang presyo sa commercial rice (If there are no NFA rice in the market, the price of the commercial rice will increase)," Tabor said.