Supermarkets to ensure availability of NFA rice

MANILA — The Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association (PAGASA) vowed that it will ensure that subsidized rice from the National Food Authority (NFA) will be made more available in supermarkets across the country.

This as PAGASA expressed confidence that the rice tariffication policy of the government will lead to lower rice prices in the market.

“We assure that cheap rice will be available in the market. Rice tariffication will also help achieve this,” PAGASA President Steven Cua said in an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Monday.

He urged the government to expedite the issuance of permits to supermarkets for them to sell the NFA rice to their customers.

“Some of our member supermarkets are not selling subsidized rice because they need a permit from the NFA,” according to Cua.

The PAGASA has signed a memorandum of agreement last September with the Department of Trade and Industry and NFA to allow the distribution and selling of subsidized rice in supermarkets nationwide.

Consumers may buy up to two bags or four kilograms of NFA rice in participating supermarkets for PHP 27 per kilogram.

Furthermore, Cua said rice tariffication will help ensure wider availability of affordable rice in the market for consumers.

“The rice prices will depend on the quality of supply that will be imported in the country,” he said.

The National Economic and Development Authority has earlier assured that subsidized NFA rice will still be available in the market until the end of this year while consumers also benefit from cheaper imported rice with the passage of the rice tariffication law.

The NFA is mandated to ensure the sufficient supply of buffer stocks of rice in the country.

President Rodrigo Duterte has signed Republic Act No. 11203 last February which liberalized the importation of rice in the country through the lifting of quantitative restrictions and replacing them with tariffs.