CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY--The City Price Coordinating Council is set to conduct a series of inspections next week on all rice retailers in the city following a regionwide rice supply shortage earlier declared by the National Food Authority (NFA).
City Price Coordinating Council chair Jose Edgardo Uy said that the inspections seek to deter unfair market practices, such as mixing varieties of rice and pass it off as a high-quality variety.
Uy admitted that there is no law that regulates the price of commercial rice varieties.
“What we can do is check for instance is if a Class A variety of rice is being mixed with Class B. Or if they're mixing the commercial variety with NFA rice and sell this at a much higher price, as that would be a violation of the law,” Uy said.
On April 18, Uy said he will confer with NFA-10 Director Fernando Nunez following reports that commercial rice prices in public markets and other local retail outlets have increased due to the NFA supply shortfall.
This, as rice vendors at the Cogon market – the largest in the city – have started rationing the NFA variety at only three kilos per customer.
They said that once their NFA supply lasts, they will be able to sell only the commercial varieties.
Last week, Nunez admitted that the NFA supply in the region has run out and they are waiting for the government’s imports arriving next month. (Mark D. Francisco)
