Commercial rice price hike looms

CEBU, Philippines - The National Food Authority yesterday assured the public that there will be no increase in the price of NFA rice, however, they cannot prevent business operators from imposing a hike in prices of commercial rice.

NFA-7 Regional Information Officer Lucy Rosales said that price of NFA rice remains at P25 per kilo for premium rice that contains 25 percent broken grains and P30 for premium rice with 15 percent broken grains.

NFA rice sold in various “Tindahan Natin” remains at P18.25. “Tindahan Natin” is only available for identified beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Last December, a vessel from Vietnam carrying 405,000 bags of rice arrived in Cebu bringing the stock to 1.6 million bags, enough for consumption until the end of the first quarter of the year.

Part of the supply for Central Visayas is the allocation for Region 8.

This Saturday, another ship shall transport 66,000 bags and more shipments are expected every month.

Rosales assured the public that there is nothing to worry about the availability of the rice from NFA, which are sold in over 1,000 outlets all over the region.

NFA has also established 131 “Tindahan sa Parokya” outlets across the region.

She said that speculations of price hike are announced always every start of the year, but the public must not panic since NFA maintains a level of inventory that covers consumption for several months.

“It is actually a good thing that shipment of rice for this year was done as early as December last year so we could have enough supply this year,” Rosales said.

She however said that prices of commercial rice may indeed go up and they understand that business operators have to make up for their losses during typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng last year plus the continuous increase in the price of petroleum products.

“But here in Central Visayas, wala man ta’y problema sa supply. As you can remember during typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng, wala man ta nagpanic diba, kay wala man ta naapektuhan. Our supply remains stable until now,” she added.

Rosales said that increase may be a matter a peso or two depending on how much business operators need to recover. She said on their latest monitoring, price of rice is at P35 to P36.

Rosales said they are closely monitoring operators of NFA outlets, who are likely to increase prices of NFA rice taking advantage of its affordability.

An operator caught violating the agreement with NFA will immediately face closure under NFA’s one strike policy. Rosales said that last year, they shut down about 150 NFA outlets. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/NLQ   (FREEMAN NEWS)