RP has enough rice for 6 months

MANILA, Philippines - The National Food Authority (NFA) said yesterday that it has a total of 24 million bags of rice which will be sufficient for the next six months based on the agency’s average daily rice sales of 128,307 bags.

The NFA’s rice stock is equivalent to 34 days food security requirement based on the country’s daily rice need of 35,400 metric tons or 708,000 bags.

To further improve its grains inventory, the NFA is targeting to buy 21 million bags of palay or paddy rice this year, way over the 13.2 million bags of palay procured last year.

According to NFA administrator Jessup P. Navarro, the agency’s policy of keeping sufficient rice inventory in areas usually isolated during calamities gives consumers ready access to rice supply and protect them from any unwarranted increase in the price of the staple.

Having sufficient supply on a per provincial basis also makes it easier for the NFA to increase the volume of rice distribution when demand went up or there was a slow down in the infusion of rice from the private sector.

The NFA, Navarro said, was thus able to immediately comply with the directive of Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap to increase by 35 percent to 40 percent the volume of rice being distributed in the Metro Manila in the aftermath of typhoon Ondoy.

Yap’s also ordered NFA to increase rice infusion in other regions affected by typhoon Pepeng particularly Regions 1 and 2 where most of harvestable palay were submerged and consequently damaged by the flood.

“NFA’s proactive rice positioning pays off in the case of Baguio City when despite its isolation, there was no reported case of rice shortage and the price remain affordable to consumers,” said Navarro.

As of the third week this month, Navarro said, NFA Benguet has a total of 75,037 bags in rice inventory. The stocks will last for 34 days based on the average daily sales of 2,228 bags.

The whole of Ilocos Region, meanwhile has a total of 1.8 million bags of rice which will be sufficient for the next 132 days based on the average daily regional sales of 14,108 bags.

In the Cagayan Valley, the regional rice inventory is placed at 881,347 bags that will be sufficient for the next 142 days based on the average daily rice sale of 8,037 bags.

“It is important for us to maintain sufficient rice supply nationwide,” Navarro said, adding “we are also tapping the existing more than 24,000 active market outlets in intensifying our rice distribution activities.”

Navarro assured that the rice importation made for this year, and intensive palay procurement during last year’s main harvest and during the summer crop in the first quarter have effectively augmented the NFA’s rice inventory for 2009.