THE National Food Authority (NFA) in Negros Occidental has yet to distribute about 129,000 bags of government rice in the province, its top official said.
Frisco Canoy, provincial manager of NFA-Negros Occidental, said the remaining buffer stocks up for distribution until August this year still form part of the province's import allocation from Myanmar and Vietnam.
Canoy said they programmed the distribution at 30,000 to 35,000 bags of P27 per kilogram NFA rice covering at least 160 accredited outlets every month.
“We have not received new instruction from the Central Office about the distribution of the remaining buffer stocks,” he said, adding that “unless there will be an order to stop the distribution, then we will do so.”
On February 14, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act 11203, which lifted import restrictions on rice to make the price of the staple commodity affordable for all.
Effective March 5 this year, the Rice Import and Export Liberalization Law has removed the regulatory functions of the NFA over international and domestic trading of rice.
NFA-Negros Occidental, like other provincial offices, can no longer act on licensing and registration of persons and entities engaged in the grains business, and collection of regulatory fees.
Other functions stripped from the agency included issuance of negotiable warehouse receipts, warehouse inspection, authority to seize hoarded stocks, and enforce rules and regulations in the grains business.
As this developed, Canoy said the current demand for NFA rice in the local markets remained steady as accredited retailers can still sell fully their respective allocations.
This means that the public, many of them, are still consuming the “cheaper yet quality” government rice, Canoy said.
“We noted that some imported rice sold in the market still cost up to P35 per kilo thus, consumers would still opt to buy the P27 per kilo of NFA rice,” he said.
NFA-Negros Occidental expects that possible concerns from the buying public on non-availability of government rice may rise in the last four months of the year.
“By that time, we have no more rice to distribute. Our concentration would be on buffer stocking mainly for emergencies and calamities,” the provincial manager said.