Commercial Rice Prices Expected to Normalize by March

LEGAZPI CITY--THE HIKE in commercial rice prices in Bikol by P 31.00 to P34.00 pesos per kilo since late January this year, is expected to go down to its previous levels at P 25.00 to P 30.00 per kilos comes March or April this year.
National Food Authority (NFA) regional director for operations, Atty. Jose Guevara, told Vox Bikol that the rise in prices is due to current market demands with the farmer sector still in the planting months; meanwhile the NFA is in the process of milling some 1.1-Million cavans of Palay produced last year in mainland Bikol.
In the meantime, some 500,000 metric tons of NFA rice imports are expected to arrive in Legazpi and Tabaco ports starting March this year.
Guevara noted that rise in commercial rice prices in Bikol public markets is normal during the first quarter of the year; however, the artificial rice shortage that happened in 2008 will never occur again with over a million cavans of rice as NFA buffer stocks for the region.
Guevara added that currently two big millers have qualified in an NFA bidding to mill over 1 million cavans of palay procured in Bikol by the grains agency. The winning millers are mandated to conduct the milling operations for six months until summer harvest season this June.