By Mark Garcia Bacolod City-- The National Food Authority is calibrating the distribution of the NFA imported rice in the retailers in Negros Occidental as the schedule for the arrival of the additional 130,000 bags is yet to be announced, Provincial Manager Frisco Canoy said Monday. Canoy told the DAILY STAR that for this year, another 130,000 bags or 6.5 metric tons were allocated for the province, out of the 250,000 MT was or 5 million bags bought by the government from corporate firms outside the country. The calibration is implemented to ensure that more Negrenses could avail the NFA well-milled rice sold at P27 per kilo, he added. Last month, a total of 80,000 bags from Thailand were unloaded through MV Unison as a supply for Neg. Occ., and Canoy said that the 130,000 bags to arrive will be the last of the imported rice allocated for the province this year. In total, the imported rice allocated for the province is 210,000 bags for 2018. Canoy said that more than 34,000 bags are left at the NFA warehouse as the distribution of imported rice to the 157 retailers continue. He said that they will calibrate the distribution by limiting it to 6,000 bags weekly until the schedule for the 130,000 bags is announced. “The distribution will be slow-paced in the following weeks to calibrate it until the next importation of rice supply in the province,” Canoy said, adding that this is also allow many Negrenses, especially the poor, to buy good quality rice at a low price. Canoy also revealed that based on their recent monitoring, there are lesser supply of regular-milled commercial rice compared to well-milled rice, with the minimal rice harvest seen this month in the province. He also said that the price of well-milled rice sold commercially in the market is already at P52 to P55 per kilo, adding that the supply is imported from other rice producing provinces like Mindoro and Iloilo. This situation may continue until the harvesting season on last week of September or first week of October, he added. Buying of NFA rice per individual is still limited to 5-kilograms, and some accredited retailers have already lowered it to 2 to 3-kg. per person to stretch the supply to more consumers, Canoy said. But Canoy assured that they will push more supply of NFA rice to the market if the schedule of the arrival of the new supply will be concrete. The NFA rice supply for 2019 is not yet certain as the central office is still deliberating on it, he added.*