SAN JOSE, Occidental Mindoro (PIA) — The National Food Authority (NFA) in Occidental Mindoro is prepared to ship 80,000 bags of rice to the Visayas region for the ₱20 per kilogram rice program of the Department of Agriculture.
This after Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. has instructed the NFA to start repositioning rice stocks to the Visayas in preparation for the launch of the ₱20-per-kilo rice program.
NFA Occidental Mindoro Branch Manager Elimar Reguindin assured that the branch has enough stocks to provide the said bulk of rice.
To ensure the quality of rice, the stocks are currently undergoing fumigation – a process used to kill insects or pests in rice, said Reguindin.
The stock is expected to be shipped to the Visayas region through Caminawit Port after the fumigation process.
“Nakipag-coordinate na ang aming NFA Regional Office sa shipper o contractor na ipadala na ang kanilang vessel para makargahan ng bigas,” he said.
(Our NFA Regional Office has already coordinated with the shipper or contractor to send their vessel to be loaded with rice.)
NFA Administrator Larry Lacson stressed the need to move rice from Mindoro to supplement areas with limited rice production, such as Cebu, Negros Island, Samar, and Leyte, a press release from DA said.
“The additional stocks for the Visayas will mainly come from Mindoro Island, where the NFA inventory exceeds 830,000 bags of rice,” Lacson said, poiting out that transferring 40,000 sacks of rice from Mindoro to Cebu, for example, could take up to a month.
Meanwhile, Secretary Tiu Laurel, who also chairs the NFA Council said that “It will take several weeks to transfer tens, even hundreds of thousands of 50-kilo bags of rice from NFA warehouses, particularly from Mindoro, to various parts of the Visayas.”
The rice for this initiative will come from the NFA’s buffer stocks, which, as of last week, had reached a five-year high of 378,157 metric tons—equivalent to 7.56 million bags of rice, which is enough to feed all Filipinos for 10 days.
The ₱20/kg rice program is one of the government’s initiatives to provide accessible and affordable rice to Filipinos and to “help clear space in NFA warehouses, allowing the agency to purchase more palay from local farmers at higher prices.” (DSG/VND/PIA MIMAROPA-Occidental Mindoro/Photo courtesy of NFA Occidental Mindoro
