The National Food Authority has released the terms of reference (TOR) for its importation of 250,000 tons of milled rice on Aug. 31, signed by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco.
The NFA wants the entire volume to arrive and be deposited in various warehouses across the country by the end of October.
Of the total volume, two-fifths or 100,000 tons should have arrived by the end of September.
The NFA is buying from neighboring, state-run suppliers mainly in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Southeast Asia is home to some of the world’s biggest exporters of rice as well as some of the biggest importers, including the Philippines.
Based on the TOR, the biggest tranche at 80,000 tons should be shipped to Manila, the National Capital Region being the biggest consumer of rice in the country.
About one-fifth—49,000 tons—of the latest batch of imports are bound for warehouses in Cebu City while 24,000 tons are going to Zamboanga City and 20,000 tons to Davao City.
Also, 16,000 tons each are going to the cities of Tabaco and General Santos; and 12,000 tons each to Batangas City and Subic in Zambales.
Further, 10,000 tons is going to Iloilo City; 6,000 tons to Legaspi City and 5,000 tons to San Fernando in La Union.
Earlier this month, Evasco was reported to have said he would propose to President Duterte the abolition of the NFA,
Largely because of the agency’s P167-billion debt, Evasco said the NFA was better scrapped or be relegated as a regulatory body without commercial stake in the industry.
Evasco took over the NFA along with three of the biggest agriculture-related agencies that used to be under the Office of the Presidential Assistant on Food Security and Agricultural Modernization which President Aquino created. Before that, the agencies were supervised by the Department of Agriculture.
The three other agencies are the National Irrigation Administration, Philippine Coconut Authority and Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol had vied for the return of the these four agencies to the DA, and had even recommended to the President a list of appointees to lead the agencies.