SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ – The Senate Committee on Agriculture put the Department of Agriculture and the National Food Authority to task amid the reported artifi cial shortage in commercial rice that resulted to skyrocketing prices in the market.
Sen. Cynthia Villar, committee chair, said the DA and the NFA have “to do something about it.”
The senator who attended the National Rice Research and Development Summit at the Philippine Rice Research Institute, the country’s leading rice research agency, here on Wednesday said has been led to believe that the country has sufficient rice.
“Wala naman silang sinasabing shortage,” Villar said her offi ce was told that the country will have to import some 350,000 metric tons only to comply with the trade agreement which the Philippines had signed.
“Ang sabi nila hindi tayo kailangang mag-import kasi nakaka-produce tayo ng halos enough for our people except that we are required under the trade agreements that minimum we should import 350,000 metric tons,” Villar said.
Villar said her committee would summon agriculture, including NFA, officials, especially when the issue is formally brought to her offi ce. “There must be written complaint because we cannot just call them to appear without formal complaint,” she added.
This as local grains traders said they are running out of supply of both milled and unhusked rice.
Rafael Aguilar of Santa Rosa town said his ricemill has not been operating for days because of lack of palay.
Thus, like in any other rice retailer in Cabanatuan City, retail prices of rice has been rising in the last few days, the cheapest at P35.
He would not know the cause of the apparent shortage. Residents have also complained of the unavailability of NFA rice in some stores. Some buyers suspect that retailers sell NFA rice as commercial grains.
Aguilar said that as member of the Nueva Ecija Grains Retailers Association, they receive an allocation of 60 sacks of rice per week. They sell NFA rice at P27 to P28 a kilo.
