NFA says rice inventory for Central Visayas good for 14 days

CEBU, Philippines —  The National Food Authority-7 in Central Visayas yesterday announced that the remaining rice inventory for the region is only good for the next 14 days.

NFA-7 information officer Olma Bayno said that as of the other day, there were only 488,196 bags of rice left in their warehouses. This does not include, however, the commercial rice.

 According to Bayno, the daily consumption requirement in Central Visayas is around 34,860 bags. She, however, said that they are expecting 360,000 bags of imported rice to arrive in Cebu under the Open Tender importation program.

She said the first 120,000 bags from Thailand are expected to arrive on the first week of September and another 120,000 bags on the second week. Bayno said there is no schedule yet for the third batch of 120,000 bags.

Meanwhile, Senator Nancy Binay yesterday urged Malacañang to review the government's palay buying policy from local farmers as farm gate prices of unmilled rice continue to rise.

"September na po at anihan na naman. By practice, NFA is supposed to buy palay from our local farmers and producers. But with farm gate prices at P23 per kilo average, di makagalaw ang NFA kasi allowed lang sila sa buying price ng palay na between P17 and P20 per kilo," said Binay in a statement.

In April, the NFA Council was requested to allow NFA to buy palay at P25 per kilo but Malacañang gave them a ceiling of P20 per kilo.

"NFA is the ready-buyer of our local farmers kaso di sila makagalaw since napakababa ng buying price na binibigay sa kanila ng NFA Council. Huwag nating kalimutan na kailangan natin tulungan ang ating mga magsasaka at maliliit na rice producers. Kahit liberalized na ang merkado, di natin pwedeng hahayaan na lang ang malalaking traders ang magdikta ng presyo ng bigas," she said.

The senator said Malacañang should now intervene and push the NFA Council to be sensitive enough in helping local farmers while striking a balance between importing rice and buying locally.

Davao First District Rep. Karlo Nograles said that Congress will investigate NFA on Monday with regards to the rice crisis in Zamboanga and Batanes.

Nograles said that Congress together with President Rodrigo Duterte is looking for ways to bring down the prices of rice. Nograles, who was in Cebu the other day, visited Carbon Market in Cebu City and found out that prices of commercial rice is not excessive as compared to Zamboanga  and Batanes wherein prices of commercial rice has gone up to P60 to P70 per kilo.

 Nograles, chairperson of the House committee on appropriations, said that they wanted to stop the rice crisis in Zamboanga to other regions, including Cebu. — FPL (FREEMAN)