There will be no rice shortage despite several areas being hit by recent typhoons, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

In an interview with dzBB on Sunday, DA Assistant Secretary Kristine Evangelista said they are not expecting a rice shortage on a “national scale” because there are many regions that can supply rice to the National Capital Region (NCR).

“Based on our data, we are not expecting a shortage (of rice) on a national scale. If one place is hit, we can still get rice in other places…That’s where food mobility comes in…So other regions can be a supplier of rice in the NCR,” Evangelista said.

“That’s why our National Rice program plots the amount of supply in different regions and how high the demand is from the regions. So, we can help with the food mobilization,” she added.

Typhoons “Maymay” and “Neneng” recently struck Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos Region, and Cagayan Valley, which incurred agricultural damage worth P582.4 million and affected over 21,000 fishers and farmers.

Evangelista said the DA is not expecting any movement in the cost of rice in the last quarter.

“For now, we are not expecting any movement in the cost of rice during the fourth quarter of the year. That’s based on the supply outlook and of course, the damage reports we get. We are matching it with the demand in NCR because we are a non-producing region,” she said.

Evangelista said that the price of local well-milled rice in NCR ranges from P38 to P44, depending on the wet market.

“We can see that retailers receive different prices from suppliers and traders…And there are some retailers, like those in Kamuning and Commonwealth, whom I’ve talked to, who do the traveling. So when that happens, the price lowers,” Evangelista said over dzBB.

Evangelista said they are in talks with cooperatives, whom they link to the market, to find out what bottlenecks they have and to see if the DA has to do some interventions.

“Whatever movements of the price, we want to know from our producers so we can see what assistance the DA can give so that there will be price stability,” she said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS