“We are expecting rice prices to go down further.”

The public can now heave a sigh of relief and buy NFA (National Food Authority) rice between P27 and P32 per kilo once the 250,000 metric tons of imported rice are unloaded from the Subic port, presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Monday.

In a statement, Roque said that the imported rice arrived last week, but the incessant rains have prevented the shipment to be unloaded. In addition, the rice shipment immediately eased pressure on rice prices as commercial rice is now being sold between P36 and P38 per kilo, data from the Department of Agriculture showed.

“We are expecting rice prices to go down further,” Roque said. “In the first place, the reason for the hikes in rice prices is the panic caused by rumors of rice shortage that the public does not fully understand. We have plenty of commercial rice stocks, what diminished was the NFA rice stocks. But now that we have sufficient supply of NFA rice, we see prices to go down as well.”

Moving forward, Roque reiterated the Duterte administration’s instruction to the NFA to purchase rice from the local farmers during harvest season even at a premium to ensure a stable supply instead of importing from foreign countries, which translates to “subsidizing foreign farmers.”

Roque said the government would rather buy high from local farmers and sell low to the domestic consumers than buying from foreign sources.

In Cebu, some 200,000 sacks or 10,000 metric tons of imported rice arrived from Vietnam arrived at the Cebu International Port (CIP), raising hopes that prices of the staple in the region will go down.

The shipment is part of the 500,000 sacks of imported rice pledged by the NFA for distribution in Central Visayas, particularly to national government agencies, local government units, and their official retailers.

The arrival of the rice cargo was disclosed by NFA-7 Public Information Officer Olma Marie Bayno and confirmed by the Port Operations Division of the Bureau of Customs (POD-BOC) to the Daily Tribune. The rice shipment arrived from Vietnam in the afternoon of June 17 aboard the cargo vessel Vina Ship Gold.

With the new stocks of rice, the Grain Retailers Confederation of the Philippines (Grecon) is expecting an end to the NFA rice shortage.

Erwin Gok-ong, president of Grecon-north district Cebu City, said he hopes that the NFA could supply its accredited suppliers with at least ten bags of rice per week to help stabilize the prices of commercial rice in the local market.

He said the price of rice jumped the past few months after the NFA rice stocks fell, creating an unstable supply.

NFA rice 15 percent broken grains are sold at P35 per kilo in Cebu and P27 per kilo for rice with 25 percent broken grains.

Bayno assured that the imported rice would be available in the market within this month after the documentation of the cargo is completed.