West Visayas stockpiles ample rice supply
ROXAS CITY -- Western Visayas has about 2.748 million bags of rice equivalent to 46 days daily consumption in the region.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap disclosed that the industry inventories in Region VI total to 2.748 million bags, which is equivalent to a supply for 46 days at a daily consumption rate average of 60,179 bags or 3,009 metric tons (MT) in Western Visayas.
Yap said the National Food Authority (NFA) has a stockpile of 683,690 bags or 34,185 MT and is thus able to inject more stocks into the market to stabilize retail prices.
He added that more stocks are available, given the bumper summer harvests and incoming imports from Vietnam totaling 600,000 MT.
In Capiz, the rice inventory reached 248,517 bags of rice as of June 26, NFA Information Officer Edna Artates said.
She said that of the total rice inventory, some 165,981 bags are in the households, 43,536 bags at the wholesalers, some 32,151 bags in the millers and the remaining 6,849 bags are in the retailers.
In addition, the NFA here has 33,452 bags of government rice being stocked at the NFA warehouses in the province, she said.
Artates said that they are expecting this week the delivery of more imported rice as buffer stock for Capiz as part of the government's 180,000 imported rice allocation to the province.
During Yap's visit in Panay island, he ordered NFA officials to increase rice distribution efforts to stabilize the supply and prices of staple food in Western Visayas and assured consumers in Panay Island of adequate food supply.
He had also warned retailers in Panay Island, which was hit the hardest by the typhoon, that the government would file charges against, and seize the stocks, of traders engaged in profiteering and other illicit trade practices in the aftermath of the latest typhoon.
Yap said that the NFA and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) are working in tandem in Panay in checking price movements and running after retailers and other food businessmen engaged in profiteering and other illicit trade practices. (PIA)