Rice price stable, says NFA

CABANATUAN CITY -- The government has managed to stabilized the supply and prices of rice in Central Luzon markets, the country’s grains agency reported on Thursday, barely weeks before the end of the so-called gawat, or lean months.
The engineer Nicolas Crisostomo, director of the National Food Authority for Central Luzon, said that the 881,891 bags of P18 a kilo of rice the agency injected to the market at the start of the rainy season has been enough to prevent the prices of commercial rice from soaring to high.
Commercial rice is sold at an average of P23.29 and P21.07 a kilo for well milled and regular milled respectively, according to reports.
Crisostomo said that at the onset of palay-planting season in July, they readied about 1.2 million bags of rice for distribution by the 2,145 accredited retailers and 88 Bigasan Ni Gloria sa Palengke outlets in the region.
He added that besides the stabilizing rice prices, the NFA has issued 7,055 bags of the staple for the relief operations of local governments and disaster agencies in Central Luzon during the onslaught of Typhoons Florita, Glenda and Henry.
The NFA also donated 96,000 pieces of empty bags for sandbagging, a flood mitigating action, during those days, Crisostomo added. The agency’s stock, he said, was boosted by the arrival of 2.68 million bags of imported rice allocation. --Armand Galang (Source: The Manila TImes)