NFA RICE IMPORTS ARRIVE AT CENTRAL LUZON

The National Food Authority in Central Luzon made assurance of a sufficient supply of rice for 2014 with the arrival earlier this month of the region's imported rice allocation at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) port.

Around 500,000 bags (25,000 MT) of Vietnam rice arrived last week via the vessel MV Voge Fiesta.  Another vessel, MV Vinh Phuoc shall arrive later this month carrying some 225,000 bags (11,250 MT) of Vietnam rice.  Of the total volume of 725,000 bags, region 2 shall be allocated 200,000 bags while the provinces of Central Luzon shall receive 525,000 bags.

NFA Imported Rice arrives at Subic - MV Voge Fiesta, currently berthed at Subic Port, unloads around 500,000 bags of imported rice intended for region 2 and 3 provinces.  The National Food Authority in Central Luzon made assurance of a sufficient supply of rice for 2014 with the arrival earlier this month of the vessel carrying the region's imported rice allocation.  According to NFA-Region 3 Director Amadeo De Guzman, the imported rice from Vietnam is part of the 500,000 metric tons additional imported rice sought by the agency through the government-to-government import scheme.

ZUBIC, Zambales-According to NFA-Region 3 Director Amadeo De Guzman, the imported rice from Vietnam is part of the 500,000 metric tons additional imported rice sought by the agency through the government-to-government import scheme.

The Vietnam rice is meant to augment the current rice stocks which was badly affected due to the successive calamities that hit the country in 2013.  "It will augment the NFA's food security buffer stocks which was depleted due to the abnormally huge requirement for relief operations after the devastation caused by typhoon Santi and super typhoon Yolanda last year," Dir. De Guzman said.

Dir. De Guzman also said that the rice importation along with the planned aggressive palay procurement of the agency will build enough rice stocks to address the region's rice consumption for this year.

De Guzman further stressed that the agency's rice stocks are all of highest quality because they regularly conduct monitoring of their stocks based on the required regulations and standards.  

"Our current policy is that we do not store rice for more than (6) months, therefore I am assuring the consuming public that our present inventory of local rice stocks, which were recently milled using our newly-procured palay, are all of good quality.  The same goes for the imported rice, since the stocks need to pass NFA's quality standards," De Guzman added.