Serving of half cup of rice in food establishments pushed

CEBU - The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) is pushing for the mandated serving of half cup of rice in food establishments nationwide to address wastage of the country’s staple food.

PhilRice development communication division head Hazel Antonio said the rice wastage is equivalent to 10 grams per person or around 384,000 metric tons per year and this was also echoed by PhilRice deputy executive director Karen Barroga who noted that the aggregate amount of rice wasted in a year, worth an estimated P7 million, could have fed around 2.5 million Filipinos for a year.

“So, actually the campaign says, get only what you need and what we have done in the past was to encourage a half-cup serving [of rice] as default. And some of the provinces actually and cities, restaurants in the cities and provinces partnered with us to make sure that we could have a default serving of half cup of rice para hindi sayang… maiwasan natin ang wastage,” Barroga said.

Antonio meanwhile said there are already 46 existing local ordinances in different parts of the country, requiring restaurants to serve half-cup rice orders. She said some of the local governments that issued a similar ordinance include those in Cebu City, Quezon City, Manila City, Puerto Princesa City, Davao City, Baguio City, and Iloilo City, among others.

“Mas maganda kung national ‘yung law para at least kahit saan ka man pumunta, alam mo na dapat magsi-serve sila ng half. And ito naman po ay in consultation with the businesses din noong trinay namin sa mga provinces and cities, and okay naman sa kanila as long as wala naman daw cost,” Antonio said.

And here is another good news! The provincial government of Cebu said it will allocate P100 million to fund the cheap market project that would sell National Food Authority (NFA) rice at P20 per kilo and commercial rice at an affordable price.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said the so-called “Sugbo Merkadong Barato” (SMB) would be selling NFA and commercial rice with prices similar to those sold at the Kadiwa ng Pangulo pop- up stores to benefit indigent consumers five times a week. She said local governments have already committed to bring the benefits down to their constituencies who are in need of assistance.

Katherine Bethune, head of the provincial public information office, said that Capitol would release P100 million to purchase rice from the NFA and distribute it to the local governments. “The LGUs will be the one to sell the P20 per kilo of rice to the poorest of the poor,” Bethune told the Philippine News Agency.

The provincial government is expected to absorb at least 10% losses of the allocated amount since it would be selling rice at a loss if only to give the Cebuanos more spending capacity during this time of high inflation. “Those who do not like NFA rice, Cebuanos can also buy commercial rice cheaper than what is sold in the market. Capitol gihapon ang mo pohunan,” Bethune added.

Apart from rice, consumers could also buy fresh harvests at affordable prices. Bethune said the capitol is set to launch the SMB project before the end of the month. (Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos and John Rey Saavedra)