Consumers line up to buy cheap NFA rice in Bohol

NFA-Bohol Manager Maria Fe Evasco and NFA-Bohol information officer Jhoel Lim inspect rice retail stores in Barangay Cogon in Tagbilaran City, during the resumption of sales/distribution of NFA rice on Friday as Bohol consumers line up to buy NFA rice. INQUIRER Visayas / Leo Udtohan

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol—Consumers here lined up on Friday to buy cheap rice from the National Food Authority (NFA) after sales and distribution resumed.

Marites Mendoza, 45, endures being in a long line at a rice retail store in Barangay Cogon in this city. “Mingpalit ko kay barato man, gaan sa bulsa (I have to buy since it is cheap),” said Mendoza.

“Mao ni palitonon sa mga pobre (It is what the poor people like me buy),” she added.

According to NFA-Bohol manager Maria Fe Evasco, 40,000 sacks of rice arrived in Bohol last Tuesday from Cebu after four months of non-availability in the market.

The rice variety was imported from Thailand and Vietnam.

“The first shipment we received is 40,000 bags. And then we are expecting more shipment to come in and that will sustain our distribution this year,” said Evasco.

NFA rice retailer Maria Porlares said that 24 sacks of rice were immediately consumed at 2 p.m. on Friday.

Porlares who has been selling rice since 1984 said more people came to buy since it had been no stocks for months.

There were 253 rice retailers in Bohol province, which would receive 50 sacks of rice a week. Mendoza and other consumers could only buy five kilos a day at P27 per kilo—half a price of the commercial rice.

Evasco explained that they had to limit the number of kilos being sold to an individual so many consumers could avail of the cheaper rice.

“We have to limit it in the sense that we have plenty of consumers in the locality for them to avail/buy of the low price NFA rice, we have to institute the measure of limiting it to five kilos per customer per day,” she said.

Evasco and her personnel personally monitored and inspected rice retail outlets if the sale and distribution was implemented. Bohol is considered the rice bowl of Central Visayas. /jpv