DA to tap church groups in rice distribution

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap announced on Saturday a plan to tap religious groups in distributing rice sourced from the National Food Authority (NFA).

Yap in an interview on the program "Para Sa 'Yo Bayan" aired over radio dzMM said he will be meeting with some church-based and civic groups next week to iron the details of the plan asking them to help distribute NFA rice to their members.

“If we will increase the supply of NFA rice in the market it would be via faith-based group and not in the traditional distribution. It should be specialized and controlled,” Yap explained.

He said this way, the allocation of rice supply to the public will be regulated.

NFA administrator Jessup Navarro meanwhile said they have already apprehended more than 300 rice retailers for several violations, such as overpricing, hoarding and rice diversion.

Navarro said they are now monitoring closely how the NFA rice is being sold to the public by various retailers in the market.

Yap reiterated that there is no rice shortage, saying that the hike in rice prices has been triggered by several factors including the cost of the rice production.

“It is true that if the market is flooded (with rice supply), there is a tendency that the price goes down but it will not go down any further that it would not reflect the true production cost,” Yap said.

He said this is why he is appealing to the public to separate the issue of supply from the price of rice.

Yap said they are now purging the list of accredited NFA rice retailers to further regulate the distribution of the staple grain to the public.

He also revealed another irregularity: even though some of the retailers have already died they remain on the list of retailers of the NFA.

Yap also admitted that the country has yet to be self-sufficient in rice production as the Philippines is still importing 10 percent of the commodity.

“The country is not self-sufficient. We are only 90 percent in rice production,” he said.

For his part, Robert Hernandez, president of the Asosasyon ng Industriya ng Bigas (ANIB), said the news of a rice shortage was triggered by speculations of some big businessmen due to the shortage in the international market.

“There is no rice crisis. While it is true that there is a shortage in the international market, locally there is no shortage,” Hernandez said.

To help the government regulate rice distribution, Hernandez said they are policing their ranks and reporting to the government some members who have been engaged in rice diversion.

ANIB has more than 30,000 rice retailers and distributors nationwide.