By Marilyn E. Galang
CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija, (PNA) — The National Food Authority (NFA) regional office has assured that the region has sufficient supply of rice good enough until the end of the year.
The pronouncement was made by NFA regional director Amadeo B. De Guzman in the midst of reports on the increasing rice prices due to the tight supply brought about by the lean months.
De Guzman quickly dispelled the possibility of a rice crisis in Central Luzon as he pointed out that the NFA is prepared to flood the market with government rice in case commercial supply dwindles.
“NFA Central Luzon’s buffer stock stands at 1.77 million bags which is good to last until the end of the year,” the NFA official said, as he allayed fears of a rice shortage in the coming months because of the onset of the palay harvest season by late September which would ease the pressure on the prices of commercial rice.
The lean months which began late June and will last up to early September is the traditional planting season for farmers.
In such time, there are no harvests which causes commercial rice supply to dwindle and prices to soar from P36-42 per kilogram.
To prevent this, the government through the NFA intervened by releasing a greater volume of its P28.00/kg rice through its distribution outlets.
In intensifying its efforts to ensure the availability of affordable rice, the food agency deployed its palengke watch teams in order to monitor the actual situation in public markets and to check on the operation of NFA accredited retailers on a daily situation, including weekends.
The NFA, with its mandate to stabilize the price and supply of rice, said that the government’s market intervention in Central Luzon was able to prevent the prices of commercial rice from increasing at unreasonable levels during the lean month period.
The food agency also reported that the supply and prices of commercial rice are expected to normalize with the onset of the main cropping harvest season as palay deliveries from the provinces started arriving at the Intercity in Bocaue, Bulacan, one of the biggest rice trading center in Luzon.
Nonetheless, De Guzman said the NFA will continue monitoring the public markets to safeguard the supply and prices of the staple.
The list of NFA accredited retailers is also being disseminated by NFA provincial offices in Region 3 so that consumers will know where to access NFA rice.
The NFA also encouraged consumers to be vigilant and to report any irregularities in the market situation at telephone nos. (044) 600-2539 and 958-0142.