SAN JOSE, Antique – The price of rice in Antique’s local market is expected to go down with the projected harvest in the first cropping season.
The National Food Authority (NFA) in Antique expects some 800,000 bags of rice in August’s harvest.
NFA-Antique already requested on Thursday from the central office an initial P1 million to be used for the purchase of the newly-harvested rice.
NFA-Antique manager Marianito Bejemino said the request was made following a report from the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) showing that there will be harvest in about 10,000 hectares of rice fields in the province by end August or early September.
“The OPA expects an initial harvest of about 80 bags of palay per hectare,” Bejemino said.
By next month, Bejemino said many farmers in Antique will be harvesting rice for their first cropping.
“NFA’s buying price will be P17 per kilogram for a clean and dry palay,” he said, adding a bag may cost around P700 to P800.
With the start of the harvest season in Antique, the NFA manager said the price of rice will go down.
“Unlike in the previous weeks that the price of rice really went up to as much as P51 per kilogram for well-milled rice and for the regular-milled rice P48 per kilogram. Now it is going downward,” he added. (With PNA/PN)
