LINGAYEN- An official of the National Food Authority (NFA) said the current scene of buyers queuing up at NFA retail outlets in markets in Pangasinan is not an indication of rice crisis but only “price crisis.”

Edilberto Libatique, branch manager of NFA in western Pangasinan, observed that the wide gap between NFA rice and commercial rice is the reason people are queuing up before NFA’s “bigasang bayan”.

“So, it’s not really (a) supply crisis but one which we might call possibly as price crisis,” declared Libatique whose office covers 22 towns and three cities of the first, second, third and fourth district of Pangasinan.

Pointing out that there is no reason for panic-buying, he said there is enough government rice available for the people
NFA rice sells at P18.25 per kilogram while the lowest price of commercial rice prevailing ranges from P30 to P32 per kilogram.

“On the other hand, people are not queuing up on commercial rice,” he observed.

He said if people start also queuing up for the commercial rice, that should only be the time for people to be alarmed because
it would be an indication of poor rice supply and shortage. That is not happening now, he stressed.

Libatique said NFA outlets in the western part of the province are currently being revalidated because of a presidential directive before that all passbooks of NFA outlets are suspended.

Originally, the NFA branch had 98 outlets, in addition to 69 outlets previously sponsored by legislators in order to provide additional sources of cheap rice to their constituents.

Already validated were 45 outlets spread in 22 municipalities and three cities, of which Dagupan got four, located in its two public markets.

All these are now selling their weekly allocation of 30 bas each.
Libatique said they are opening more “bigasang bayan” outlets because of the increased demand for NFA rice.

Each outlet, he said, sells packs of NFA rice at two kilos each.(PNA)