NFA-7 assures rice stocks to last through lean months

CEBU, Philippines – The National Food Authority-Central Visayas (NFA-7) said its current rice inventory in all its warehouses as of mid-July stood at around 900,000 rice bags.

This, it said, is more than enough for the lean harvest period which is seen to last through October because of the El Niño phenomenon being experienced.

The lean months normally start in July until September.

Mary Agnes Militante, NFA regional information officer, revealed in an interview that the agency received around 10,000 bags and 71,000 bags of 25% brokens and 15% brokens of well-milled rice, respectively, this month from national imports.

From July 15 to 19, NFA-7 delivered around 36,000 rice bags to Eastern Visayas (Region 8).

For this month, NFA-7 already sold 124,000 bags to its accredited active retailers in Central Visayas, hitting already 47% sales accomplishment for July.

Militante said sales of NFA rice among its retailers may go up during the lean months.

She said the expected increase in commercial rice prices during the lean months in normal.

As of today prices of commercial rice remain stable.

In a previous interview, NFA-7 Director Raul Chong said the agency's rice stocks are enough to stabilize any price hikes in the market.

He said it has enough buffer stock of rice to be supplied in local markets in case the price of the staple food will increase during the lean period.