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ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/21 February) – The National Food Authority (NFA) has assured this city has sufficient rice supply although the NFA has yet to import rice.
Gaudencio Nuega, NFA provincial manager, said they still have 20,000 metric tons or 400,000 sacks of rice at their warehouse in this city.
Nuega said that the 200,000 of the 400,000 sacks of 50 kilos each are intended for the provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the remaining 200,000 for this city.
He said the 200,000 sacks of rice are enough for local consumers for a period of 30 days.
But Nuega said the NFA stocks could last up to 156 days since they only supply 20 percent of the local daily rice consumption.
Commercial rice producers supply 80 percent of the daily rice consumption, which ranges from 6,000 to 6,400 sacks.
Nuega said the stocks they have is sufficient to supply the local market demand until the expected arrival of the first imported rice shipment.
The first imported rice shipment is expected to arrive in April, he said. (MindaNews)