THE National Food Authority (NFA) in Negros Occidental has started implementing the new selling price of government rice for accredited retailers in the province at P23 per kilogram.
Engineer Frisco Canoy, provincial manager NFA-Negros Occidental, said the new selling price took effect starting Tuesday, October 29, upon receiving the order from the agency's Central Office in Manila.
Canoy said the selling price is P2 per kilogram, lower than the previous P25 per kilogram.
If per bag, the cost decreased to P1,150 from the previous P1,250 per 50-kilogram bag of "cheaper yet quality" rice.
"Only the selling price or the amount which the NFA obtains from retailers when they purchase rice is adjusted," he told SunStar Bacolod, stressing that "the buying price of the consumers from the retailers is still P27 per kilogram."
Based on its latest inventory, NFA-Negros Occidental has yet to distribute about 7,000 bags of imported rice from Myanmar.
Of the existing inventory, 5,000 bags are the province's remaining buffer stocks while the other 2,000 bags are additional stocks from Iloilo.
Canoy said the province might still get more stocks from the nearby Panay province as it has to help fully distribute all existing imported rice stocks in the region.
The provincial manager said with the lower selling price, they expect that the distribution will increase.
"We still have inventory of imported rice nationwide which has been stocked since January this year. So for it to be disposed, possibly the price has to be reduced," he said.
Canoy added that "with the new selling price, the distribution might be faster."
In Negros Occidental, for instance, the agency noted a "lesser" volume of NFA rice being purchased by the retailers at the previous price of P25 per kilogram.
In fact, Canoy said some accredited retailers even stopped selling NFA rice maybe because there are imported commercial rice available with competitive prices.
They might be encouraged to increase the volume as they now have a markup of P4 per kilogram or P200 per bag, he said.
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, 2019, 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, and authority to seize hoarded stocks, and enforce rules and regulations in the grains business.
Its concentration now is on buffer stocking mainly for emergencies and calamities.
Supposedly, the NFA rice distribution in Negros Occidental is only until August 2019.
However, it was extended as there are still available inventory that has to be discharged.
"Hopefully, we could fully distribute our remaining import allocation stocks soon," the NFA official added.