NFA urges CamNorte LGUs to sell cheap rice

By Rosalita Manlangit

DAET, Camarines Norte --- The National Food Authority (NFA) is urging local government units (LGUs) in Camarines Norte to help lower rice prices in the province by selling rice at a lower cost to their constituents.

NFA Assistant Branch Manager Jonathan Cabrillas said the NFA has allocated 10,000 bags of rice per month to LGUs starting last February, allowing their constituents to avail themselves of cheaper rice.

However, he said no LGUs availed of the allocation last February and March, while this April, only Vinzons and Mercedes towns participated in the rice distribution program.

“We have so many stocks and we are calling the LGUs to enter a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Food Terminal Incorporated (FTI), which is under the Department of Agriculture (DA),” he said.

He said that after a MOA with the FTI, an LGU can pull out the rice stocks from the NFA.

In February, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. declared a food security emergency due to an “extraordinary” increase in local rice prices, even though global market costs had decreased and tariffs on imported rice were lowered.

This declaration enabled the DA to instruct the NFA—which is legally restricted from selling rice directly to the public—to release buffer stocks to government agencies and LGUs, he said.

Cabrillas said that due to the ongoing food security emergency, the NFA is selling rice to the LGUs at P33 per kilo, which they can then sell for P35 through the KADIWA outlets in their localities.

Cabrillas said that the allocation of rice to government agencies and LGUs began in February and will continue until further notice.

Francia San Miguel, the NFA warehouse supervisor in Camarines Norte, reported that as of Monday, April 7, the NFA had 2,500 bags of milled rice and 126,000 bags of palay. Once milled, these palay bags will yield approximately 82,000 bags of rice.

She noted that this amount is sufficient for 19 days of consumption, exceeding the required 15-day supply.

The NFA is purchasing dried palay at a rate of P24 per kilo, which is several pesos more than the P14 to P21 per kilo offered by private buying stations.

San Miguel said that due to the large stockpile in their warehouse located at Lag-on, Daet, they are currently purchasing fewer than 50 bags of palay while awaiting the opening of their new warehouse in Talisay town after Holy Week. (PIA5/Camarines Norte)