CV gets 340,000 sacks of NFA rice
A total of 340,000 bags of rice from Vietnam arrived at the Cebu International Port, according to an officer of the National Food Authority (NFA).
NFA-7 Information Officer Olma Bayno said the 200,000 bags arrived last week, while the 140,000 bags arrived the other day.
These are part of the 500,000 sacks of imported rice that the NFA promised to distribute to local government units, national government agencies and official retailers in Central Visayas.
The NFA yesterday started unloading the 200,000 bags of rice that would be sent to its warehouses at Pier 6 and in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City.
Bayno said the target was to unload the first batch of rice by first week of July.
"We have two weeks to unload the bags of rice. But the unloading and delivery of the stocks to warehouses might be delayed if rain persists," he said.
A vessel, carrying 140,000 bags of Vietnam rice, is still on anchorage at the CIP and its waiting for its turn to unload.
This means that supplies of NFA rice will be available in the markets next month.
Bayno said another shipment of 160,000 bags will complete the 500,000 bags allocated for the region.
NFA rice is sold at P32 per kilo with 15 percent broken grains and P27 per kilo for rice with 25 percent broken grains.
"Mao ra gihapon ang presyo sa NFA rice. Wala siya mosaka," Bayno said.
Since February, NFArice had been out of stock in public markets after NFA-7 stopped allocating supplies to its 1,018 accredited retailers.
The NFA rice shortage was attributed to the non-importation of rice nationwide.
This forced its patronizers to avail of the more expensive commercial rice.
Despite the NFA rice shortage, NFA-7 officials said the supply of commercial in Central Visayas remains stable up to now.
But it resulted in the increase of commercial rice prices from P1 to P3 per kilo.
"Hopefully, once we flood the market with our NFArice kay moubos ang presyo sa mga commercial rice," said Bayno. —
Palaubsanon/KBQ
Mitchelle L.