More imported rice is expected to arrive in Bacolod City this week   to augment the National Food Authority stock in an effort to further drive down the price of commercial rice in Negros Occidental, NFA provincial manager Marianito Bejemino said yesterday.

Expected this week are 150,000 metric tons of Vietnamese rice to be sold at P18.25 a kilo, he said.

Earlier this month 100,000 bags of Thai rice arrived in Bacolod City that was sold by the NFA  at P25 a kilo.

The price of commercial regular milled rice in the market is now down to P26 a kilo and we expect it to further drop to P22 to 24 a kilo, he added.

The government is increasing to P32 billion the  tax subsidy for the NFA to ensure that the state-owned firm will have enough funds to import rice and meet domestic demand until December, reports from Manila said.

The government had initially allocated only P7.5 billion worth of tax subsidy to the NFA.*CPG

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