By Joanna Diaz-Sabado
PIA
SAN JUAN, La Union—The National Food Authority (NFA) in La Union announced that the “government will not allow any Filipino to get hungry despite lack of rice stocks”.
According to Engr. Fortunato Bulao, NFA-La Union provincial manager, there are only 692,453 bags available and an expected production of 115,375 bags in the province.
Data is as of February 18, 2018. But with the existing daily rice consumption of 5,800 bags or a monthly consumption of 162,400 bags, they expect the available stocks to last for less than four months, or until May this year.
There are also some 8,000 bags available at NFA-La Union warehouses, but 2,000 bags of which are for emergency relief operations, thus the government will likely resort to rice importation.
“We are anticipating that the importation of rice will come just in time before the lean months,” Mr. Bulao said.
He, however, assures the public that "the government is on top of everything" and "President Rodrigo Roa Duterte will not allow anyone to get hungry."
They expect a total of 250,000 metric tons or 400,000 bags of imported rice allocation for Region 1 by June, wherein 75,000 metric tons will be allocated for the province of La Union.
Mr. Bulao also assures the public that there are no existing rice cartel and rice hoarding in the province.
Average price of NFA rice is at P32 pesos while average commercial rice sells at P43.50. Buying price for palay is at P17.70 per kilo.