The rice reserve of the National Food Authority (NFA) is now completely gone, a few weeks after the agency announced that its stocks could only fill up the country’s requirement for two days.

Reports obtained by the Inquirer showed that the NFA’s distribution stock was already wiped out, while a nationwide inspection revealed there were no more NFA rice available in the market.

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This was the first time since 1972 that it had run out of subsidized rice.

NFA spokesperson Rex Estoperez earlier urged the agency’s policymaking body to schedule the arrival of imported rice in April, instead of June, because of the agency’s inability to procure paddy rice (palay) from local farmers at a low buying price. —Karl R. Ocampo

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