The province of Iloilo and its neighboring island province Guimaras have rice surplus even if the lean months are beginning.
Data of the National Food Authority, show that Iloilo and Guimaras provinces now have a buffer stock that can last for 75 days.
The buffer stock is computed based on the daily consumption of the residents of the two provinces that is 21,080 bags per day.
It is equivalent to 1.6 million bags of rice being stored right now by the commercial rice traders, households, and the NFA.
The NFA Iloilo provincial office also continues to procure rice from the farmers, but its procurement from January to June this year is only less than 20,000 bags despite the sufficient budget downloaded by the central office.
The NFA procurement is being affected because of the higher price offering of the commercial traders which is about P20 per kilo as compared to that of the NFA that is only about P17.00 per kilo of rice and the sporadic harvest after the second cropping last year.*PNA
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