DTI, Ozamiz price council conduct monitoring

Misamis Occidental trade and industry department, in coordination with the Local Price Coordinating Council (LPCC) spearheaded a special price and supply monitoring in Ozamiz City, particularly on rice and other agri-products in the market.

This is to protect consumers against price manipulation, profiteering and possible hoarding.

Four rice traders selling National Food Authority (NFA) rice were visited during the monitoring.

The authorized NFA outlets rice monitoring team, led by NFA Assistant Provincial Manager Glorioso T. Manlegro, visited RGN, Dumanjug, Udal and Econg stores, during the monitoring.

Price of NFA rice at RGN Store was pegged at P32 per kilo. The store has a stock of 60 sacks of NFA rice. They also have an estimated 100 sacks of commercial rice with price range from P51 to 59 per kilo.

Dumanjug Store, also an authorized NFA rice retailer with current 98 sacks of NFA rice. Their commercial rice is sold from P51 to 58 per kilo with 300 to 350 sacks of inventory.

Udal Store has an estimated 60 sacks of NFA rice and 40 to 50 sacks of commercial rice while Econg has an estimated 70 to 75 sacks of NFA rice still sold at P32 per kilo. They also have at least 20 sacks of commercial rice with price range from P46 to 59 per kilo.

According to Manlegro, NFA in the province has around 30,000 bags for the whole semester.

They supply directly to Institutionalized Bigasan sa Palengke (IBSP) outlets of which 100 sacks are supplied per week.

He also said Ozamiz City has six NFA outlets in the public market and eight NFA outlets in the barangays. In the province, there are 42 authorized NFA rice retailing outlets with at least one per municipality.

Acoording to Manlegro, there was no sign of rice hoarding in the province. Further, there is no sign of rice hoarding in the province. (PIA Misamis Occidental)