NFA rice safe for consumption, official says

Rice that the government sells at a price lower than market rates is safe, a National Food Authority (NFA) spokesperson said after a farmers’ group claimed that these were “unfit for consumption." This was reiterated by NFA spokesperson Rex Estoperez over the weekend. The NFA “has a rice quality management program," Estoperez told GMANews.TV. Under the program, rice supplies are subjected to an “ageing process" and those stored for about a year and a half are sold to traders who, in turn, may sell them as feeds for livestock, he said. Five to 15 percent of the NFA’s total rice inventories have been stored for a period of anywhere from one year to a year and a half at the agency’s 782 warehouses. Earlier, National Rice Farmers Council (NRFC) president Jaime Tadeo said that the grain sold by the NFA is unfit for human consumption. The staple, when stored for long periods, produces a powder which is carcinogenic, Tadeo said at a briefing organized by the Rice Watch and Action Network (R1). But at the same time, Tadeo admitted that rice can be reprocessed to eliminate the cancerous powder. During the same briefing, R1, NRFC, the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Agrikultura, and the Pambansang Koalisyon ng mga Kababaihan sa Kanayunan appealed to the NFA to further cut rice prices. Instead of its selling price of P23.50 a kilo, it should sell it at P18, making it affordable for farmers who produced the rice themselves, the groups said. To further assist in lowering grain prices, the NFA should sell its rice reserves which are already good for 99 days, the groups said. The NFA, which is required to store a month’s worth of rice inventories to serve as a buffer, sells the staple at P23.50 a kilo despite buying it at P29 to P30 a kilo, he said. The Philippines consumes an estimated 36,300 metric tons of rice a day. - KBK, GMANews.TV