By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff reporter
Laoag City—The National Food Authority (NFA) and other rice stakeholders displayed several truckloads of rice in front of the Provincial Capitol on April 25, 2018.
The move ensures a stable supply of good, quality rice in the market.
Dubbed as “Tulong sa Bayan,” traders, millers and retailers sell rice to consumers at PHP39 per kilo in support of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s effort to make affordable commercial rice while waiting for replenishment of National Food Authority (NFA) rice buffer stocks.
In Ilocos Norte, they delivered the first batch of low-priced commercial rice in Laoag and Batac City outlets on April 25.
NFA officials said “This effort is a joint project of the Office of the President, the Confederation of Grains Retailers Association of the Philippines, Inc. (GRECON), the Philippine Confederation of Grains Associations (Philcongrains) and NFA.”
For Ilocos Norte vice governor Eugenio Angelo M. Barba, who witnessed the program launch in front of Capitol, he said Ilocos Norte has no problem with rice production as it has long been rice sufficient but traders are selling it outside the province which affects the supply and demand in the province.
By May, the NFA reported they expect about 250,000 metric tons of imported rice to arrive in the country. This, they believe, will lower rice prices in the markets nationwide back to PHP27-PHP32 per kilogram price range.
To date, commercial rice in the province sells at PHP45 per kilo, but with the ‘Tulong ng Bayan’ program, it now sells at PHP39 per kilo0
“This is a great help for our constituents under the initiative of our president and governor to ease the burden in their daily living,” said Sangguniang Panlalawigan ex-officio member Domingo Ambrocio, the board’s agriculture committee chairperson.
After the kick-off launching of the program in this city, the program will also bring more truckloads of lower-priced rice in the other 21 towns in the province.