THE unloading of imported rice in Negros Occidental is already 60 percent complete, an official of the National Food Authority (NFA) in the province said on Friday, November 30.
NFA-Negros Occidental assistant manager Marianita Gellecanao told SunStar Bacolod that of the 100,000 bags of rice from Thailand, 60,657 bags were already unloaded as of Friday morning.
Gellecanao said most of the unloaded stocks were stored at the two warehouses in the city.
“Some 1,500 bags were already transported to NFA’s warehouse in San Carlos City and another 1,000 bags in its warehouse in Ilog town,” she added.
The NFA-Negros Occidental earlier projected that under normal condition, meaning without disturbances like bad weather, the unloading is targeted to be fully finished on December 5.
The 100,000 bags, or five metric tons, of rice arrived in the province via MV Inlaco Express at the Bredco Port in Bacolod City last November 23.
It forms part of the 600,000 bags shipped by the said vessel.
The bigger allocation of 500,000 bags was earlier unloaded to two other disports, or discharge port, areas in General Santos City and Davao.
This is the second import allocation for the province in 2018. The first importation of 80,000 bags arrived in July, also from Thailand.
Gellecanao reiterated that NFA-Negros Occidental may start the distribution of the new buffer stocks to accredited retail outlets next week.
With the additional import allocation, Gellecanao said they can also start increasing the distribution to 20 to 50 bags per retail outlet among major and non-traditional markets.
During the previous months when stocks are limited, the agency calibrated the distribution to only five to 10 bags, she added.