THE National Food Authority (NFA) in Negros Occidental is pushing for "flooding" the markets in Negros Occidental with the P27 per kilogram government rice, its top official said.
Frisco Canoy, provincial manager of NFA-Negros Occidental, said "flooding" means significantly increasing the volume of the "cheaper yet quality" government rice in every retail outlet.
Canoy said that amid the pronouncements of more import allocations in the country, the agency's central office already has instructions to "flood" the market with NFA rice.
"For now, we still have limited supply so NFA's presence cannot be felt that much," he said, adding that "once there is already additional importation, the mandate is to make the government rice available throughout the week."
Negros Occidental is expected to get additional import allocation of 130,000 bags of rice following the 80,000 bags from Thailand it received last July.
Of the initial allocation, more than 80 percent or about 120,000 bags were already distributed by NFA-Negros Occidental.
Canoy said "flooding" would also mean increasing the market participation of NFA rice in the total market supply.
With the province's daily consumption of 20,600 bags, its participation is only about five percent.
"We are looking at doubling it to 10 percent or even make it 20 percent once the additional volume is available," he said.
In order to achieve the target market participation of at least 10 percent, the NFA has to supply about 61,000 bags of rice in a month.
So with the impending importation of 130,000 bags, "the agency is capable of meeting the requirement for more than two months" though it can still program the distribution if stocks need to be further stretched.
By strengthening the presence of NFA rice in the market, the agency also eyes to lower the prices of commercial rice which has already reached up from P45 to P60 per kilogram depending on the quality.
Canoy said with quality and competitive price of NFA rice, many consumers would resort to buying it over commercial rice.
"Stronger presence of NFA rice will complement to more production to be brought by the upcoming peak of harvest season thus, prices of commercial rice would surely lower down," he stressed, adding that the measure would also benefit more consumers in the marginalized sector.*