ALAMINOS CITY, Pangasinan -- Some 5,500 bags of imported rice have arrived at the National Food Authority (NFA) -- Western Pangasinan warehouses here and in Mangatarem this month.
In an interview on Tuesday, Chona Maramba, administrative officer of NFA-western Pangasinan, said the number of bags is expected to increase as the delivery continues until the 50,000 bags allocated for western Pangasinan are completed.
“Western Pangasinan was allotted 50,000 bags of rice, and it began arriving since Monday last week,” Maramba said.
She acknowledged the delay in the transport of rice to NFA warehouses from Poro Point, La Union was delayed because of bad weather experienced in the previous weeks.
“The delivery was not on schedule,” she said.
Maramba, however, assured the availability of NFA rice in the public markets of western Pangasinan once the stockpile has become sufficient.
“We expect the price of commercial rice to decrease as soon as we get the green light from the main office to release NFA rice in public markets,” she said.
Meanwhile, NFA-Eastern Pangasinan finished restocking its rice allocation last week.
Each of the NFA warehouses in eastern and western Pangasinan has 50,000 bags of imported rice allocation from the 280,000 bags comprising the first batch of delivery from Vietnam and Thailand, said Dionisio Rivera, manager of NFA eastern Pangasinan, in a previous interview. (PNA)
