Different varieties of rice displayed by retailers at Tacloban public market. (Photo by Sarwell Meniano)
TACLOBAN CITY -- The National Food Authority 8 (Eastern Visayas) is ready to flood the market with cheaper rice, if necessary, to stabilize the price of the staple food.
NFA-8 Manager John Robert Hermano said Thursday making more affordable rice widely available in the market would bring its price down.
“If commercial well-milled rice is available at PHP42 to PHP44 per kg. and NFA offers the same at only PHP32 per kg., people will shift to NFA rice and this will pressure traders to lower the selling price,” Hermano told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
With the availability of NFA rice in the region, the agency last week began distributing cheaper rice in five provinces of the region, prioritizing highly populated and impoverished areas.
As of Thursday, the region’s NFA warehouses have stocks of 150,000 bags of rice after two shipments arrived at the city’s port.
The region received 79,000 bags of rice from Thailand on Aug. 10, representing the first shipment since NFA ran out of supply early this year.
On the same day, another foreign vessel carrying 140,000 bags of Thai rice that got stuck at the Bacolod port for several weeks, arrived in this city. The NFA expects to complete the unloading within a week.
More shipments of Thai rice will arrive in the region within September to complete the 480,000-bag local requirement for July to December 2018.
Teams have been deployed to the market to make sure that government rice is being sold at a cheaper price.
Hermano downplayed pronouncements of Tacloban-based rice traders that there has been scarcity of supply of the staple food in the region since July.
Commercial rice is available in the regional capital at PHP39 to PHP54 per kg., up from the PHP35 to PHP45 price range early this year.
“It’s not true that there is shortage. Indeed, there are lots of stocks of rice in privately-owned warehouses. Just recently, traders unloaded about 100,000 bags of commercial rice at the city’s port. NFA rice shipment has been arriving in the region as well,” Hermano said.
The official said the rice shortage scenario in Zamboanga City where a state of calamity has been declared, is not the same in Leyte and Samar provinces.
Frederick Dy, a rice retailer at the city’s public market for more than 20 years, said it has been difficult to buy sacks of rice in many parts of the region, prompting them to source out supplies from the western part of Leyte and Luzon provinces.
“It’s more expensive since we have to spend more for transportation and hauling. The price of unhusked rice is up to PHP21 per kg. A rice trader has to spend about PHP36 per kg. to buy, transport, pack and store unhusked rice. More expense will be entailed to mill the rice,” Dy said.
Dy, one of the accredited NFA rice retailers in the city, said even with the presence of NFA rice, the price of commercial rice will remain high due to increased capitalization.
Another staple food retailer, Vicky Magno said adding to the price adjustment is the high transportation cost fueled by oil price hikes. “Our traditional sources don’t have rice anymore. We have to buy rice from traders based in Ormoc City,” she said.
Community store owner Jessie Basilan, 45, of Palanog village said rising rice prices forced her family to cut the budget for side dish and household items.
“We used to buy meat and some vegetables almost every day, but now we can only afford to buy the cheapest fish in the market,” Basilan said.
NFA warehouses in Catarman, Northern Samar; Catbalogan City in Samar; Ormoc City in Leyte, Maasin City in Southern Leyte, Borongan City in Eastern Samar; and Guiuan, Eastern Visayas have been getting new stocks.
The grains agency has asked assistance from Biliran’s provincial government as the limited capacity of a major bridge damaged by Typhoon Urduja has prevented the entry of big trucks loaded with government rice. (PNA)
