BACOLOD City – The National Food Authority (NFA) will continue to distribute government rice in markets around Negros Occidental until October this year.
NFA provincial manager Frisco Canoy said the current rice inventory in the province is 27,000 bags which form part of the previous allocation from Myanmar and Vietnam.
He added that the remaining stocks of 12,000 bags have been purchased by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for its supplemental feeding program.
“The remaining 15,000 bags are still good for distribution up to the second week of September,” Canoy said.
However, more stocks will be available in Negros Occidental until October with the expected arrival of 40,000 bags from Luzon.
The allocation forms part of the 100,000 bags set to arrive in Western Visayas.
Canoy said the distribution was supposed to run only until August, but now it will continue within the next two months with the arrival of more stocks.
“We can expect NFA rice presence in the local markets until we fully distribute our available buffer stocks,” he added.
Canoy noted the extension of distribution does not violate the provision of the law on rice tariffication, which allows the NFA to focus on buffer stocking, mainly for emergencies and calamities.
“These stocks have been stored for several months so it should already be disposed of,” the NFA official said.
He also said they also continue to buy palay (unhusked rice) for buffer stock replenishment, and while NFA-Negros Occidental has yet to purchase more palay from local producers; it will allocate some 10,000 bags from the remaining import allocation for calamities.
The NFA would need 20,960 bags if it supplies alone the entire daily consumption requirement of the province.
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.
Starting 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, but
will now concentrate on buffer stocking mainly for emergencies and
calamities. (With a report from PNA/PN)
