THE National Food Authority (NFA) has resumed selling cheap rice in three provinces but not yet in Metro Manila and Central Luzon, due to delayed discharge of imports caused by bad weather.
NFA Spokesman Rex Estoperez told the BusinessMirror that, of the total 10 million 50-kilogram bags the agency imported, about 2 million bags or around 100,000 metric tons (MT) have arrived in the country.
Of the total volume, 326,000 bags have already been discharged and distributed in the market following protocols under the importation guidelines, Estoperez said.
He traced the delay in the arrival of rice imports to bad weather in past weeks. The little more than 1 million bags that arrived at Manila port and some 340,000 bags at Subic port have not yet been discharged as of this writing.
“Yes. Within the week we will start distributing NFA rice in the market,” Estoperez said in an interview. “In fact, the mere fact that the rice imports of NFA have arrived…will now change the landscape of commercial rice prices.”
Retail prices of commercial rice have been steadily increasing and breached the P44-per-kilogram level for well-milled rice and P40-per-kilogram quotation for regular-milled rice due to market speculations and absence of NFA rice.
In a separate statement, the NFA said it has resumed selling its P27 and P32 per kilogram rice variants through 188 accredited retailers in Agusan and Surigao, including the islands of Dinagat and Siargao, on June 18.
“The initial shipment of the 250,000 MT government-to-government rice arrived on June 2 at the Surigao and Subic ports, but the rice was not immediately unloaded due to bad weather,” it said.
“Unloading of the 5,000 MT allotted for Surigao was completed only last Saturday, June 16, and after the necessary documentation and prescribed procedures, the stocks started to be distributed today, June 18, according to NFA Surigao del Norte Provincial Manager Daisy Luna,” it added.
The NFA said about 126,000 bags, or around 6,300 MT, were unloaded in Tabaco, Albay, and 92,000 bags in Macabalan Port in Cagayan de Oro City.
After 13 days at berth, unloading operations in Zambales started on June 18 “with the skies getting clear.”
Estoperez said the whole volume of the initial 250,000 MT rice imports via government-to-government procurement scheme would be discharged and distributed in the market before the month ends.
The first 250,000 MT rice imports by the NFA—with 130,000 MT from Vietnam and the remaining 120,000 MT from Thailand—is meant to be immediately sold in the market to depress the increasing retail prices of the staple.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes