Residents of Barangay Pasil and Barangay Suba line up to avail the P 27 NFA rice. | Junjie Mendoza
The National Food Authority regional office (NFA-7) started selling cheaper rice to the public through their rolling stores held in Barangay Pasil, Cebu City on Saturday, July 14.
NFA-7 Information Officer Olma Marie Bayno said Pasil residents were the second to benefit affordable rice after NFA-7 launched their rolling store in Barangay Banilad last Thursday.
Starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, the NFA-7 sold rice to residents at P27 per kilogram, with 25-percent broken rice.
“(For the) meantime we have not yet started to distribute rice in the markets only through rolling stores,” Bayno said.
Since they launched the NFA rolling stores, Bayno said they have distributed 160 sacks of NFA rice to the consumers.
“This is to ensure that our intended beneficiaries or those who are in need of government assistance can avail of the rice,” she said. By next week, Bayno said they will start distributing cheaper rice in Taboan Public Market in Cebu City.
So far, she said accredited rice retailers under Philippine Grains Standardization Program (PGSP) in Taboan market have passed the requirement of PGSP.
There are 17,000 metric tons (MT) of imported rice that were delivered and stored in the NFA-7 warehouses. About 10,000 metric tons of rice will serve as buffer stock in case of calamities.