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Thursday, March 28, 2024

NFA to accredit more rice outlets nationwide

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The National Food Authority said Monday it has instructed its field offices to ease the requirements on the accreditation of rice retailers.

NFA officer-in-charge Tomas Escarez said the move aimed to make government rice accessible to the consuming public by increasing the number of accredited outlets nationwide.

Escarez ordered field offices to accredit additional retail outlets not only inside the market but even in remote barangays to make NFA rice readily available, especially to the marginalized sector. 

NFA rice is currently being sold at P27 per kilogram for regular milled and P 32 per kilogram for well milled.

“Interested applicants can be issued a temporary accreditation pending completion of inspection and submission of requirements so they can immediately sell NFA rice to the consuming public,” Escarez said.

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NFA currently has 16,775 accredited rice outlets nationwide. 

Aside from the traditional rice outlets inside and outside the markets, NFA has other non-traditional rice outlets, such as the Bigasan sa Barangay, Bigaasan sa Parokya and Barangay Food Terminal.   

NFA also participates in the Diskwento Caravan in the different municipalities organized by the Department of Trade and Industry to bring affordable government rice closer to the public, especially during this holiday season.

Escarez said the food agency had distributed 21,405,835 bags of good quality but low-priced NFA rice from January to November of this year through accredited outlets across the country. 

He said the agency planned to open more non-traditional rice outlets to further widen its reach and ensure more low-income consumers would benefit from the government subsidized rice.

The Cabinet earlier recommended to President Rodrigo Duterte the abolition of NFA’s commercial functions, including rice importation.

Economic Planning Secretary and Neda director-general Ernesto Pernia cited a consensus among Cabinet secretaries to split up the regulatory and commercial functions of NFA to prevent rice smuggling, among others.

Pernia said the recommendation was still subject to the approval of Duterte and the amendment of the NFA charter.

“We had a meeting with the NFA, and it’s not official yet, but our collective decision was going to be proposed to the president and I’m sure he will like it. It is to remove the proprietary and commercial activity of NFA and focus on its core function of regulation,” Pernia said.

Pernia said the splitting of NFA’s commercial and regulatory functions would also resolve the rice smuggling problem.

“It also removes the smuggling problem. The problem with NFA is that it buys high and sells low, which results in losses. The accumulated debt of NFA is already P165 billion,” Pernia said.

He said NFA would no longer be engaged in buying and selling, meaning it would focus on regulation to ensure adequate buffer stock of rice and other grains.

“They should have a buffer stock. Buffer stock is really reserved. It should always be there, in case of contingencies,” said Pernia.

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