The National Food Authority (NFA) will not accept imported rice this year. It is already planning to dispose its more or less 10,000 metric tons or 200,000 bags of buffer stocks that arrived in the region in 2010.
NFA regional director Tomas Escarez has informed Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Proseso J. Alcala during his recent visit in Iloilo City that the region has enough local rice to be distributed to consumers.
Escarez explained the NFA is mandated to have food security stock good for not less than 30 days at the end of June 30 and the existing buffer stock is actually good for 25 days only.
According to Escarez, the buffer stock mostly imported from Vietnam more than a year old is still "very fit for human consumption". He credited the efficient storage management of the NFA.
He admitted the disposal is intended to start in May up to June maybe slowed because it is not a lean month period.
DA regional executive director Larry Nacionales revealed Alcala instructed them to start the unloading of the stocks the soonest time possible in preparation for the next procurement season.
"The region has a higher production this dry season than last year", added Nacionales.
This year the NFA will expand its local procurement to include rice with moisture content of up to 18 to 20 percent and not just 40, he added. "Western Visayas is a rice-sufficient region," Nacionales emphasized, "the disposal of rice could also fill in the rice deficit in other regions".
NFA Western Visayas has one of the biggest and best warehouses in the country situated in Iloilo and Bacolod cities.
These warehouses play host to rice stocks not only for Western Visayas but also for Mindanao and Eastern Visayas, Nacionales said. /MP
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