RICE supply in Davao City is sufficient until yearend, a National Food Authority (NFA) official in Davao said.
NFA-Davao manager Edegary Roncal, in Monday's Kapehan sa Dabaw at The Annex of SM City Davao events center, said that the consuming public need not worry about rice supply in the city as well as its prevailing market price as it remains stable.
"I am happy to inform you that right now we are unloading one foreign vessel at Terminal Facilities and Services Corporation (Tefasco) port in Tibungco. Also, there is no plan yet to increase price of NFA rice, it will remain at P27 per kilo in the local market," Roncal said.
The vessel, which is from Thailand, is loaded with 166,000 bags of imported rice.
The unloading process has started some three days ago and is expected to run for two to three more days.
Roncal added that the 166,000 bags of imported rice is just "the first volume that the city received out of the 20,000 metric tons (MT) allocated to be unloaded in Davao City."
Of the figure, Roncal said, 60 percent is sourced from Vietnam while 40 percent from Thailand.
The country has contracted with Vietnam and Thailand around 250,000 MT of rice for the last quarter of this year.
Another foreign vessel is expected to arrive next week.
The importation of the country continues as locally produced rice is heavily affected from last year and early this year's prolonged drought.
"Our expected volume from the locally produced rice to augment food requirement of the country was affected, hence, the government's decision to import more to meet our need buffer stock for rice this year and early next year," Roncal said.
Some 200 NFA accredited retailers are in Davao City.
Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco heads the NFA, which is under the office of the president.