High quality, yet cheap, NFA rice now available in Cebu

CEBU CITY — Cheap rice from the National Food Authority (NFA) is now available here.

“After about four months of not being able to serve the public, we are happy to announce that NFA rice is back in the market,” said NFA-7 Information Officer Olma Marie Bayno.

Bayno said rolling NFA stores have been deployed within Cebu City as well as in the northern and southern towns in Cebu.

Rolling stores will also be dispatched to mountain barangays that had been identified as depressed areas by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), said Bayno.

Bayno reminded that each customer of the rolling stores will be allowed to buy a maximum of five kilos.

NFA rice with 15 percent broken grains is sold at P32 per kilo. Price for the NFA rice with 25 percent broken grains is pegged at P27 per kilo.

“We can assure the public that the rice that we have now is of high quality,” Bayno said.

Bayno added that the NFA is conducting revalidation and reaccreditation of NFA retailers.

There are at least 1,900 NFA retailers in Central Visayas.

“The revalidation and reaccreditation is to ensure that they are in compliant with our requirements. There were reports in the past that low quality rice was mixed with NFA rice that’s why we are conducting close monitoring,” Bayno said.

The government procured 500,000 bags of imported rice for Central Visayas.

Last June 17, a vessel from Vietnam arrived in Cebu carrying 10,000 metric tons of rice. A second vessel from Thailand also arrived to complete the rice importation.