NFA rice from Vietnam arriving in Negros Occ
Source: 20-AUG-2008 Intellasia | GMA News
Aug 20, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM More rice imported from Vietnam is expected to arrive in Negros Occidental this month to boost the stocks of the National Food Authority (NFA).

Online news site Visayan Daily Star reported that the move aims to drive down the price of commercial rice in the province.

NFA provincial manager Marianito Bejemino said they expect to arrive this week some 150,000 metric tonnes of Vietnamese rice to be sold at P18.25 a kilo. Earlier this month 100,000 bags of Thai rice arrived in Bacolod City. The NFA sold it at P25 per kilo.

"The price of commercial regular milled rice in the market is now down to P26 a kilo and we expect it to further drop to P22 to 24 a kilo," Bejemino said.

Government is increasing to P32 billion the subsidy for the NFA to ensure that it will have enough funds to import rice and meet domestic demand until December.

The government had initially allocated only P7.5 billion worth of subsidy to the NFA.