Unscrupulous millers, sellers behind 'vanishing' NFA rice

TABUK CITY, Kalinga- A large portion of rice stocks released by the National Food Authority to the market through its accredited outlets ended up in the open market after it was remilled and resacked by unscrupulous accredited NFA rice dealers.

This was bared by a local rice retailer, who requested anonymity and explained the case of the vanishing NFA rice.

The government rice has become scarce in the Tabuk market. People have been looking for it because of the sharp increase in the price of commercial rice.

The cheapest commercial rice now in the Tabuk market is sold between P1,200 and P1,250 per bag as compared to the normal price of P1,000 per bag some weeks back.

The retailer said after withdrawing their regular allocations from the NFA, the unscrupulous NFA retailers passed on the stock to the local rice millers who remilled the government rice to improve the color and then resack it.

Then they sold it to the big millers in Region 2.

The retailer said with quick work, the retailers could make as much as P125 per sack because the government price is P875, but they could pass it on their financiers at P950.

The source said the millers could make more by mixing the government rice with the little commercial rice and selling the mixed rice as commercial rice in the local market at as much at P1,200 each sack.

Retailer Manny Onalan confirmed the practice, saying recycling of NFA rice was not only happening in Tabuk but also elsewhere in the country because the improved quality of NFA rice was prejudicial to poor people who look for cheap rice.

Kalinga NFA OIC-assistant provincial manager Enrique Baliang said some of the rice they distributed went to the wrong hands and found its way to the open market, but that the NFA was practically helpless against the practice.

“We cannot keep watch over the retailers on a 24-hour basis,” Baliang said. -- EAJ