Bulk of rice stocks with farmers, consumers--solon
By Norman Bordadora
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:18:00 04/10/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- More than half of the country's rice supply as of April 1 are either still with farmers' families or already with consumer households, the chair of the House committee on agriculture said Thursday.
Citing figures presented by the National Food Authority (NFA) on Wednesday before House members, Palawan Representative Abraham Mitra said 1.134 million tons representing 55 percent of the country's rice inventory are already in households nationwide.
"Included in this is the not just the regular metro manila urban household but the farming household wherein the head of family has decided to hold on to some of the stocks maybe for his family maybe for his future use," Mitra said in an interview.
"The Department of Agriculture is saying that there is no shortage. I can't say that the farmers and households are the ones hoarding because they do not have huge warehouses. It's just that the inventory is with them," he added.
The NFA told the lawmakers during the briefing that as of April 1, the country has 1.934 million metric tons of rice that is good to last the country 58.9 days or roughly two months based on the 33,000-metric-ton total daily requirement of rice nationwide.
Twenty-two percent of this supply or 397,600 metric tons are already in NFA warehouses while 411,900 metric tons are with commercial rice traders.
The rice supply in NFA warehouses will last 12 days while those in the commercial sector is expected to be sufficient for 12.5 days.
"We were told that the harvest will bring up the supply of rice before the two months is up," Mitra said of the NFA briefing.
Aside from the local harvest that will come in before the onset of the rainy season, the government is also expecting 700,000 metric tons of imported rice from the 1.2 million metric tons in total quantity the NFA contracted for December 2007 to March 2008.
During the same briefing, the NFA was said to have 7.9 million bags of rice for a 9.72 percent share of the market.
Mitra said he is considering inviting Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to a hearing of his committee or to have him invited to address the House plenary in a question hour on the current state of the country's rice supply.
"It won't be a badgering sort of question hour. It will be a chance for him to explain the whole situation," Mitra said.
A good number of House members have already made known their intention to the House leadership to deliver privilege speeches on the rice situation when Congress resumes its session on April 21.
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