Imported rice are now deposited at the warehouses of the National Food Authority in Central Visayas (NFA-7) ready for distribution.
/CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA
Cheap rice from the National Food Authority in Central Visayas (NFA-7) will already be made available in Cebu markets starting next week.
Olma Marie Bayno, NFA-7 Information Officer, said they are only waiting for the second shipment of imported rice from Vietnam to be unloaded and audited in their warehouses before these can be distributed to accredited retail outlets.
The vessel carrying the shipment of 7,000 metric tons or 140,000 bags of rice docked at the Cebu International Port (CIP) at around 4 p.m. on Thursday.
The vessel which brought the shipment to Cebu was left floating off the waters of Kawit Island for 14 days because of the lack of berthing space at the CIP.
Bayno said the vessel had to wait for the first shipment of rice to be unloaded at the CIP before before it took over the berthing space left by the vessel which arrived ahead of it.
Unloading of the second shipment started at 1 p.m. on Thursday and will take seven days to complete.
Earlier, 17,000 metric tons or 340,000 bags of rice were also shipped to Cebu.
Bayno said they will no longer wait for the third shipment from Thailand consisting of 8,000 metric tons or 160,000 bags of rice to be unloaded before they start actual distribution of NFA rice.
The third shipment already arrived in Cebu on Wednesday but remains near Kawit Island because of lack of berthing space at the CIP.
“NFA-7 is expecting to observe a drop in the prices of commercial rice once the new supplies of NFA rice are injected to the market,” she said.
However, Bayno reiterated that retailing is the least of their priorities.
Most of their supplies will be allocated for government agencies engaged in disaster response like the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) offices of Local Government Units (LGUs).