CEBU CITY -- The Grain Retailers Confederation of the Philippines (Grecon) warned on Wednesday that calamity experienced by Luzon could cause a rice shortage in Cebu in the coming months.
Grecon chairperson Teresa Alegado, also mayor of Consolacion town, said the favorite rice brands of Cebuanos, such as Ganador and Lion Ivory, come from Luzon, which was badly battered by recent typhoons.
Ganador is produced by Nueva Ecija, while Lion Ivory is produced by Isabela.
She said the government will have to find alternative sources of rice to keep the supply stable.
She said California rice is also a preferred variety in Cebu. Some of the California rice in Cebu comes from Vietnam, but there are also some local farmers who grow it. The National Food Authority also has some of the supply, under a US Government grant to the Department of Finance (DOF). Cebu also gets rice from Iloilo.
Alegado, also the chairperson of the Alliance of Grains Industry Stakeholders, said that if the rice inventory in Luzon is good for 40 days as announced by the Department of Agriculture (DA), there would be a problem once the supply runs out.
Damaged
Areas planted to rice in Luzon have been damaged by floods caused by the recent typhoons.
If the government cannot find alternative sources of rice, Luzon would tap stocks for the Visayas and Mindanao. When this happens, Alegrado said, there will a shortage and prices will rise.
Even without a calamity, she said, the country's rice production cannot answer the demand of the growing population.
DA records show that in Central Visayas alone, rice produced by its four provinces (Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental and Siquijor) is only 31 percent of demand.
Alegrado said the government is not anymore importing rice because this has been delegated to the private sector through an importation permit from the National Food Council.
Last March, Alegado said the government decided to allow the importation of 560,000 metric tons of rice by the private sector.
Business owners who complied with all the requirements and won the bidding were able to import rice.
"I understand that the 560,000 metric tons of imported rice is good only until this month. So, I think there's a need to import again," Alegado said. (EOB of Sun.Star Cebu)
