The Department of Agriculture (DA) said the unveiling of rice-corn blend products in local supermarkets and stores has been delayed as it could not yet transfer government funds to its private-sector partner.
“We have not yet established how we are going to transfer the money to them [Philippine Maize Federation Inc.],” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol told the BusinessMirror.
“The DA’s legal team is looking into the process because I do not want to be flagged by the COA [Commission on Audit],” he added.
Earlier, Piñol announced that the DA would set aside P50 million to kick-start the rice-corn blend project, a program that seeks to reduce the country’s dependence on rice imports, this year.
Despite the delay, the DA chief vowed that Filipino consumers would still see rice-corn blend products in their local supermarkets this year.
“We have the money. Actually, we will get the money from the PLEA [Production Loan and Easy Access] program,” Piñol said.
Philippine Maize Federation Inc. (PhilMaize) President Roger V. Navarro told the BusinessMirror that his group is still awaiting the P50 million committed by the DA for the project.
Navarro said the money would be used to put up a small facility for rice-corn blend production.
“It would be like a school. Our objective here is to set up a standard for rice-corn blend milling and mixing,” he said. “We already have a standard when it comes to rice milling but we do not have one for corn milling.”
The PhilMaize chief added guidelines for manpower management, technical operations, marketing program, packaging and labeling of rice-corn blend products would be established in the facility. These guidelines, Navarro said would allow interested parties to easily venture into rice-corn blend production.
“We want to have the correct benchmarking standards to guide people to easily venture into this project,” he said. “So, if someone wants to produce RCB then we will give him everything he needs to know just like a franchisee.”
In January Piñol disclosed that rice-corn blend products would be commercially sold in the market by April.
The DA chief said the consumption of rice-corn blend could wipe out the country’s rice-supply shortfall by 2019.
“It would end the country’s rice-supply shortfall with the infusion in 2019 of about 500,000 MT of corn grits and 1 million MT in 2020, thus effectively achieving food-staple sufficiency for only the second time in the history of the country,” Piñol added.
1 comment
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