Consumers must not resort to panic buying because there is no rice shortage in the metropolis.

This was the assurance made by the National Food Authority (NFA) Friday in the wake of reports that rice stocks are disappearing after floods devastated huge areas of rice fields in Central and Northern Luzon in the aftermath of storms “Ondoy” and “Pepeng”.

NFA administrator Jessup P. Navarro said the agency will increase the volume of rice in areas hit severely by the typhoons "to further ensure the stability in price and supply of the staple and protect consumers."

Navarro said the NFA will pump more rice stocks in the National Capital Region (NCR) anywhere from 35 percent to 40 percent to deter traders from manipulating the supply and the price of the staple.

NFA said it has 7 million bags of rice in the NCR, more than enough to meet the daily consumption requirement of 116,119 bags for two months.

Navarro doused cold water on fears that famine would hit Central Luzon, Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley owing to the destruction wrought by Ondoy and Pepeng on these regions.

He said the NFA has 2.9 million bags of rice in Central Luzon, 1.9 million bags in the Ilocos Region and 852,824 bags in Cagayan Valley.

Stocks in Central Luzon will last for 39 days, while those in the Ilocos are sufficient for 37 days. The inventory in Cagayan Valley is enough for 25 days.

Nationwide, NFA has 24.4 million bags, enough to feed the entire population for exactly five weeks.

Navarro said the public should not panic since the present inventory is being beefed up by stocks from the main harvest from other major palay producing regions.

Rumors of rice shortages could have been fanned by the floods that hit farms in the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon.

As of the first week of October, the total stock inventory stood at 2.3 million tons (MT), which is sufficient for 66 days based on the daily requirement of 708,000 bags or 35,400 MT.

Based on the agency’s remaining 9 million bags operational distribution target until December, NFA stocks that stand at 24.4 million bags or 1.2 million MT, more than enough to meet the country’s requirement until yearend.

Navarro said the NFA increased its domestic palay procurement and imported rice early when world prices were still on the downside, resulting in the huge stockpile.

Bidding for another 250,000 MT rice import scheduled at the end of October, on the other hand, is intended to boost supply for the first quarter of 2010.

To date, NFA also issued 125,557 bags of rice to government relief agencies, local government units and legislators for assistance to typhoon victims.

It also released 28.6 million bags of rice as of the first week of October through its network of 24,556 market outlets.

Navarro said NFA rice monitoring reports showed that retail prices of regular milled rice and well milled rice are stable at P28.64 and P31.88 per kilo, respectively.

“These are well below the P30 and P35 per kg price cap imposed by the government on the RMR and WMR rice varieties for consumers’ protection,” he added.

“Rice availability and supply is not a problem, it is more on logistics and transport due to inaccessible roads in some places,” Navarro cited.