THE National Food Authority in Central Visayas (NFA-7) assures there will be no rice shortage in the region even as President Rodrigo Duterte ordered a halt in the importation of rice.
Olma Marie Bayno, NFA-7 information officer, explained that the region had an adequate buffer stock from last year’s importation.
Aside from the ample supply, only nine percent of the region’s rice requirement is supplied by NFA, while the rest come from commercial suppliers and rice produced by local farmers, said Bayno.
For Cebu, the daily rice consumption is 19,980 bags while 34,600 bags are consumed daily for the whole Central Visayas.
As of April 26, NFA-7 still had 600,000 bags of rice remaining from last year’s Vietnam and Thailand importation which will serve as buffer for Central Visayas.
NFA-7, she said, could also procure stocks from local farmers in Nueva Ecija and Mindanao.
NFA rice sells for P27 per kilo in the market.
Accredited sellers of NFA rice are being closely monitored to prevent unwarranted price adjustments, said Bayno.
Earlier, Duterte ordered the suspension of rice importation to protect the country’s farmers.
The government would wait for the end of the coming harvest season before it would decide on whether to resume the importation should there be a shortage in rice supply.
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