The National Food Authority (NFA) has assured the public that the country has an adequate rice supply as it announced its support for the government’s “Bigas 29” program which aims to provide affordable rice to vulnerable sectors.

NFA Administrator Larry Lacson reported that the agency had acquired 3.5-million metric tons of rice from local farmers as of 22 April.

“We have added that to our buffer stock that is good for four days,” Lacson said during a press briefing. He added that the NFA is prepared to contribute to the “Bigas 29” program, which offers rice at P29 per kilo.

Initially led by the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Bigas 29, program targets the most vulnerable sectors and distributes rice through the DA’s Kadiwa stores. Each family is limited to 10 kilos per visit.

Lacson noted that the NFA will provide approximately 10,000 metric tons of rice in support of the program.

“We leave it up to the DA (the sustainability of the project). It’s a natural occurrence for us to have aging rice in our stocks,” he said, suggesting that future aging rice stocks could also be allocated to the program.

The full scale of the Bigas 29 project requires an estimated 60,000 metric tons of rice, but Lacson clarified that the “NFA will not supply the entire thing.”

The DA has assured that the rice provided through the Bigas 29 program will be of good quality.

“Actually, the good thing about rice is that it gets tastier and the quality becomes better over time, up to one year,” he explained.

He said the aging rice stocks will undergo NFA’s rigorous laboratory and sensory tests to ensure their quality.

“These [stocks are] three months old, and to ensure that they are really in good condition, the NFA conducts laboratory and sensory tests on every batch released, especially on our aging stocks,” he pointed out.