Fastfood outlets to cut rice serving?

Fast-food outlets told to cut rice serving

As the country faces a looming rice shortage, the Department of Agriculture wants fast-food outlets to offer half portions of rice to encourage Filipinos to eat less of the staple.

“I’m asking fast-food restaurants to give their customers an option to order half a cup of rice because right now if you do a survey of all the fast-food joints you will notice a fraction of them always have excess rice,” Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said Monday.

Yap noted that people “don’t really finish their rice.”

Fast-food restaurants are popular meeting points for families and office workers in the Philippines and Jollibee Foods Corp., the country’s biggest fast-food chain, as well as international rivals McDonalds and KFC serve rice with their burgers and deep-fried chicken.

The Philippines is struggling to source supplies of up to 1.8 million metric tons this year amid the tight global supply and surging prices.

The Department of Agriculture has warned of a rice deficit of 2.1 million metric tons, equivalent to about two months’ worth of consumption, this year, according to Sen. Manuel Roxas II.

“It’s safe to say that we have enough supply of rice from January to October this year. Come November, where will we get our supply from? And that’s a big concern for us. We cannot depend anymore on other countries’ exports,” Roxas, chair of the Senate committee on trade and commerce, said Monday.

Calling for early action, Roxas urged Malacañang to release calamity funds to local government units so they can store rice to meet the impending shortage.

Continue reading the article at Inquirer website:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080318-125372/Fast-food-outlets-told-to-cut-rice-serving

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:56:00 03/18/2008
Reports from Reuters, Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. and Dona Pazzibugan

So, ano ang opinion niyo tungkol diyan sa issue na liliit yung rice servings sa mga fastfoods?

ngaun ko lang nabasa toh....

basta mahal na bigas... mahal na rin ang siumai sa tita glo pati sisig nila tsaka shawarma rice... pati pamsahe P8.50.... kung kelan di nako estudayante...

kidding aside.... i have this theory that rice suppliers are just hoarding their commodity... business is business they are just simply reversing the law of supply and demand for them to earn.... in short gahaman sila... pano ko to nasabi... punta ka sa bandang south free extra rice parin and guess what 3.50 lang kung bibili ka (sa may region 4a and 4b visayas,mindanao ) this areas are supplied by small players as well as themeselces.... in short the major suppliers are the one who to blame...

on the better side at least yung mga bigatin kumain ng rice medyo mangangyayat...