Central Luzon rice stocks sufficient

CABANATUAN CITY - With a total of stocks inventory of 4.5 million bags as of date, which is 46 per cent higher than that of last year, the rice market can feed the people in the seven provinces of Central Luzon for at least 67 days, ahead of the peaking harvest season.

National Food Authority Regional Director Nicolas Crisostomo said that last year, the inventory of this same period was placed at only 3.1 million bags. The stocks represented those from the NFA warehouses, traders and households.

The increase, he said, can be attributed to the governments stocks that from only 182,800 bags in its r warehouses for the same period last year, is now at 1.5 million bags.

"This is due to the prudent management of stocks during the last quarter of 2007 and the early arrival of our partial imported rice allocation for 2008," Crisostomo added.

Besides the warehouse inventory, Crisostomo revealed, around 2.2 million bags of imported rice will be allocated to Central Luzon this year. Of this volume, 403,000 bags from Vietnam have already arrived at the Subic port via two vessels. The balance of 1.8 million bags will arrive in the coming months.

On top of them is the expected production from the harvest that peaks this summe for which the food agency has posititioned itself for aggressive procurement at support price of P12.00 per kilo, including incentives in order to add up to our buffer stocks in anticipation of the coming lean months in the 3rd quarter.

The stocks, he said, are strategically positioned in the seven provinces of the region with 1,5000 accredited outlets to ensure the availablity in the market of the P18.25 per kilo NFA rice. The grains are repacked in one and two-kilogram plastic bags.

Meanwhile, Crisostomo asked NFA provincial managers to deploy their monitoring and "Palengke Watch" teams that will oversee the grains trading operations in their areas. "We will make sure that NFA rice will be visible and available in all public markets" he said.

Moreover, he reported that they are now in the process of sanitizing and revoking the existing passbooks of all their retailers in response to President Gloria Arroyo’s directive to purge the industry of unscrupulous traders.

Aside from the food agency’s regular rice distribution operations in public markets, the NFA also prioritizes the provision of rice to outlets under the hunger mitigation program of the government such as the Food for School program, Tindahan Natin and Tindahan sa Parokya.